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JERUSALEM, 1 May, Haaretz reports – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that 18 people had been arrested for arson attacks that caused massive fires the day before. However, according to the police, only three suspects have actually been arrested, and only one of them has had his arrest extended.
Speaking at the Bible quiz ceremony, Netanyahu said: “There are natural disasters and there are human disasters. We are currently holding 18 people suspected of arson, one of whom was caught red-handed.” He also blamed the Palestinians, claiming that their social media sites are calling for arson attacks, and added: “Our neighbours, who claim to love this land, are ready to burn it because of their propaganda.”
The Jerusalem Peace Court has extended the arrest of one of the suspects, a 63-year-old resident of Umm Tuba village with no criminal record, until Sunday to check surveillance footage. He was detained following a tip-off from local residents in the Nahal Draga neighbourhood near the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Homa. The suspect’s lawyer, Fars Mustafa, said that tobacco, a pipe and cotton wool, which he said he used to clean the pipe, were found on the man.
Police also reported the arrest of a 19-year-old Isavia resident suspected of spreading content on social media that “calls for terrorism and arson”. According to police, he wrote, in particular: “They burned Gaza – may God protect them. Israel is burning – God, avenge us!”.
Dozens of fires break out in open areas in Israel every day. Due to dry weather and vegetation conditions, the fire spread extremely quickly yesterday. In previous years, right-wing politicians have often accused Palestinians of arson, but no one has ever been charged with a nationalist arson that would have caused a large-scale fire. Most investigations have pointed to negligence as the cause: for example, the catastrophic Carmel fire was caused by a shisha butt, and some of the large fires in the Jerusalem Mountains in 2016 were caused by firing of flares or welding operations.
The tendency to blame minorities for arson attacks is not unique to Israel. In Turkey, Erdogan has blamed Kurds, in Europe he has blamed migrants, and in California there have been suggestions that the LGBT community working in firefighting services is responsible for failures in firefighting.
