APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday November 25, 2016
Quote of the day:
"The fire does not distinguish between Jews and Arabs. There were fires in (the Arab town of) Umm
al-Fahm and in other places. Unfortunately, there are those who decided to take advantage of this terrible
situation to incite and lash out at an entire population. Those who love our motherland should focus now on
putting out the fires and helping the victims rather than inflaming hatred. Now let's save what can be saved.
Afterwards, if it turns out a despicable Jew or Arab did this act, he should be condemned and severely
punished."
--Joint List Chairman, MK Ayman Odeh, himself an Arab resident of Haifa said Thursday as 60,000 residents were evacuated from the city.**
--Joint List Chairman, MK Ayman Odeh, himself an Arab resident of Haifa said Thursday as 60,000 residents were evacuated from the city.**
Front Page:
Haaretz
- Enormous fire in Haifa: 60,000 residents evacuated from the city
- A strategic test for emergency forces ahead of the next war // Amos Harel
- Netanyahu’s flagship firefighting squadron caused more damage than help // Amir Oren
- In the shadow of belligerent social media comments, in the West Bank they expressed doubt at the accusations of terror // Amira Hass
- Bennett identified an opportunity and added a match to the fire of hatred against the Arabs // Ravit Hecht
- “They feel like refugees”: Haifa residents left without knowing if they will have a place to return to
- Attorney General: The suspicions in the submarines affair did not cross the threshold of a reasonable suspicion of an offense
- France requires supermarkets label settler products
- Igal Sarna (admits he is obsessive and is willing to lose to Netanyahu in Netanyahu's libel suit) [Hebrew]
Yedioth Ahronoth
- In flames
- Terror of fire: Suspicion that great part of the fires caused by nationalist arsons
- Without home: 75,000 people evacuated from their homes
- Country burning: Most of fire in Haifa. Fires in Jerusalem hills and up to Carmiel
- Refugee in my city // Lior El-Hai
- Mother of Elad, a firefighter cadet who was killed in Carmel Fire Disaster, was evacuated from her homoe
- A blow to sanity // Dana Specter writes that the fire, whether intentional or not, is a terror act against everything green, beautiful and sane in this country
- Lower the flames // Alex Fishman writes that there is clear evidence of arson and people have been detained – but we need to still be careful before tagging what we see in the last few days as a new type of terror
- Submarine affair - The suspicious dismissal: Brig. Gen. (res.) Shaikeh Barakat, who represented German dockyards for years, told Yedioth: “They threatened them that if they didn’t take Miki Ganor (instead of me), the IDF would not purchase submarines from them”
- The tank flipped over, Ido was killed
Maariv Weekend
- Fire zone – arson terror
- Soldier killed in tank that flipped during training
- The full version of ‘Mr. Submarines’ – What Shaikeh Barakat told his associates about the way he was pushed out of the deal and how they replaced him with the real estate agent Miki Ganor, and who was involved in this
- The Ariel roadmap – Despite opposing it in the past: (Far right-wing) Minister of Agriculture advancing plan to transfer land ownership to Bedouin
Israel Hayom
- The arson terror – Haifa is burning: More than 60,000 evacuated; Prime Minister: “We are facing incitement to arson – and we will punish severely”
- The arsonists will be sorry // Boaz Bismuth
- Pyromaniacs of hate // Haim Shine
- We will stand up, despite those against us // Dror Eydar
- Scion of a ‘tankist family’ was killed in a training exercise
- The mass evacuees: “We were scared for the children, hope we can return home”
- The heroism of the firefighters: In the air and on the ground
- They opened their hearts: People of Israel hosted those who lost their homes
News Summary:
**The fires that broke out across the country, the damage to property and the accusations of arson that were pointed at the Arab population were the top stories of today’s Hebrew newspapers. The police believed that some of the fires were nationalistically-motivated arsons and it arrested eight Arabs on suspicion of arson Thursday morning, and later released four after it was proved they were not related. But the police gave no other details, such as whether the suspects were Israeli citizens or from the Palestinian Authority. Later, a Palestinian illegally in Israel was arrested on suspicion of arson near the town of Beit Meir near Jerusalem where the blaze continued to rage out of control. Also, Israel Police made an arrest for incitement to arson, after a 24-year-old man from Rahat in the south of the country called on Facebook for youth to set fire to more of the country. The unusually dry weather and the strong winds were also blamed for the fires. But some wondered how there were so many different fires simultaneously and so far from each other. Right-wing ministers were quick to blame the fires on the Arabs and for the first time, nationalistically motivated arsons by Arabs were termed ‘terror.’ Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “Every fire caused by arson or by incitement to arson is terrorism in all respects.” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Israel needs to prepare “for a new type of terror” and instructed police to monitor social media for incitement to arson. Education Minister Naftali Bennett pointed at Arabs when he wrote on Facebook that "only those who that doesn’t belong to is capable of burning it." But Arab MKs noted that Arab communities were also in flames and Haifa is a mixed city. Joint List Chairman, Arab MK Ayman Odeh and other Arab MKS said such statements incited against the Arab population at large. (Maariv) MK Yousef Jabareen (Joint List) rejected “with disgust” the accusations and called on Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to “behave responsibly, halting the wave of incitement they are feeding. Every plot of land in this homeland is in our heart, and we deplore the damage to it and its people."
Meanwhile, Arabs outside Israel have come to help. Israel accepted an offer Thursday by the Palestinian Authority to send four firefighting teams to help combat the blazes across the country. And this morning, Egypt and Jordan offered assistance to Israel with the forest fires. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received offers that Egypt will send two helicopters shutdown and Jordan will send fire trucks. Maariv reported.
While the politicians argued over who was inciting and what was terror and the newspapers printed the word terror across their front pages (with the exception of Haaretz), graffiti and death threats that were left at the Reform Movement synagogue in Ra’anana, ostensibly by Jewish extremists, barely made the news. A knife was left alongside three envelopes containing death threats addressed to prominent individuals who have been calling for gender equality at the Wailing Wall. The names were Anat Hoffman, Chair of the Board of Women of the Wall; Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism; and American Rabbi Richard Jacobs, President of the US Union for Reform Judaism. The envelopes all contained death threats. It was on page 9 of Maariv, page 25 in Israel Hayom and didn’t even make the pages of Yedioth.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.