Forest fire damage since the beginning of summer is running five times ahead of all of last year, and much of it is the result of arson linked to the Palestinian uprising, Jewish National Fund spokesman David Angel said Wednesday.
He urged the police and fire departments to do their utmost to prevent the torching of forests that JNF Chairman Moshe Rivlin has called the “intifada against trees.”
There have been 160 fires since the beginning of May, which have destroyed about 120,000 trees and thousands of acres of grasslands, the JNF spokesman said. The police have arrested nine arson suspects.
Two are 18-year-old youths from the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm. Five are Druse from Madj el-Shams in the Golan Heights.
But the Palestinian uprising is not the only cause of fire damage. Equally to blame, according to Rivlin, are Israelis whose “worst problem is indifference.” He referred to lack of fire-prevention measures in agricultural settlements and the shortage of volunteers to help fight fires in rural areas.
“We told them a thousand times to clear weeds growing near houses, but our pleas fell on deaf ears,” Rivlin complained.
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