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The parents of Ariel Newman, an 18-year-old Jewish American who died from exertional heat stroke in 2014 during a hike to the Judean desert, will be awarded $750,000 due to organizational negligence, according to a ruling by the Jerusalem District Court.
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Newman was born in the United States, where his parents reside. After turning 18 years old in 2014, he came to Israel as part of a mechina — a pre-military preparatory program for non-Israeli Jewish youths who wish to volunteer in the IDF.
As part of the program, he went on a supervised hike in the Judean Desert on a scorching day along with a dozen other youths. Around 2:30pm, Newman collapsed and was airlifted to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later due to severe heat distress.
The parents pinned their son's death on negligence on the part of the staff and lack of preparation for the intense heat in the middle of the desert. The program rejected the claims and asserted that the young man had died due to genetic factors.
The judge presiding over the case said that extreme temperatures were indeed recorded that day according to real-time data provided by the Society for the Protection of Nature and that Newman's death was attributed to the weather conditions as per the medical team that treated the deceased.