Page 6-THE NEWS-October, 1987
Tree Terrorism in Israel Prompts Massive JNF Campaign
NEW YORK (JTA) - A
wave of fires that has
devastated Jewish National
Fund forests in Israel this
year has prompted the JNF to
mount an all-out drive for im
mediate financial help. The
JNF needs a minimum of $7
million: $2 million to replace
trees recently burnt and $5
million for fire-fighting equip
ment urgently needed to fore
stall future disasters.
Arson is strongly suspected
in about 25 percent of the
fires. The scope of this “tree
terrorism" is unprecedented,
striking at the very soul — and
soil — of Israel.
‘.4 National Tragedy’
These fires affected 25 acres
of pasture in the area of
Mevasseret Yerushalaim; 50
acres of forest and orchards
near Nataf; 150 acres in a
65-year-old forest near Ma’ale
Hahamisha and Kiryat Ana-
vim that were dedicated to
Israel’s national poet, Chaim
Nachman Bialik; and 50 acres
of the Children’s Forest,
located in the B’nai B’rith
Martyrs’ Forest, trees planted
by children for children who
were killed during the
Holocaust. In addition, 875
acres of natural woodland
were destroyed in the area, in
cluding oak, carob, pistachio
and pine trees.
JNF president Joseph
Stemstein called the fires “a
national tragedy and a matter
of national urgency.” He said
that “it is imperative that we
declare ourselves to the
replacement of every one of
these forests, especially in the
face of those who are employ
ing this latest form of ter
rorism, arson, 14 years after
the Yom Kippur War.”
Yitzhak Hatuel, regional
supervisor of afforestation
for JNF, told Israeli news
paper Hadashot that workers
from the West Bank who
travel to work £uid return
home each day cross the Beit
Shemesh bridge and stop to
throw incendiary devices,
made of matches tied with
string around lit cigarettes, in
to flammable shrubs alongside
the forest. “When the fire
reaches the matches, they ig
nite in one blow,” said Hatuel.
The workers are about 20
kilometers down the road to
Hebron by the time the fire is
detected, making apprehen
sion almost impossible.
Some Arsonists
The day the four fires were
set near Jerusalem, a pilot for
JNF, Uri Goldschmit, was on
a routine inspection flight
when he saw a column of
smoke rising and three men
running away. Two of them
succeeded in escaping, but a
third had stopped to change
from khaki clothes to an Arab
djellaba. Goldschmit shadowed
him and radioed for help.
The man was caught and in
terrogated and he identified
his two partners. The three
were from the village of
Ararah. They are being de
tained on suspicion of trying
to set fire to lyron Forest “on
nationalistic grounds.” That
same week, tl^ee youths from
the village of Bar Ta’ah were
stopped on suspicion that they
belonged to a gang that set
forest fires “on nationalistic
grounds.”
Two months prior, three
youths who were residents of
the area around Hebron were
caught while attempting to set
fire to Netiv Halamed Hay.
After several hours’ interroga
tion by Beit Shemesh police,
they reportedly confessed.
Said Cohen: “What is
devastating — and this is
what is heart-rending — is
that some of these fires are
clearly aimed at touching on
the nerves, on the emotions, of
Israel. How do you replenish a
forest of trees that were
planted by children in honor of
children who perished in the
Holocaust? And the very fact
that there was a fire in an area
known as the Martyrs’ Forest
to honor the memory of Jews
who were killed during the
Holocaust can’t be accidental.
It’s a terrible, terrible blow.”
The JNF is not singling out
Arabs as the main agents of
arson. Many JNF workers are
Arab, performing the most
trusted and crucial tasks, from
planting to guarding the
forests. The JNF spokesman
in Israel, David Angel, told
the press that most forest fires
are caused by farmers who
burn crop byproducts, un
authorized and unsupervised
by JNF. In addition, there are
fires started by careless hikers
who toss smoldering cigaret
tes, or by campers who do not
properly extinguish bonfires.
There are also incidences of
fires begun as a result of wmy
training exercises, in which a
single spark from a bullet or
artillery shell suffices to igmte
combustible growth.
Israel, and JNF specifically,
are ill-equipped to contend
with disastrous fires. Hun
dreds of volunteers from kib
butzim, moshavim and other
settlements fought the blazes
with hoses and fire-beater?
while crop dusters dropped
water on the flames. The only
official fire-fighting unit that
could attend the fires in the
Jerusalem area came from
Beit Shemesh. Fire-houses in
Rehovot and Ramia could not
respond to the appeals
because they were busy with
local fires in fields and woods.
Cohen said that JNF is now
seeking to establish a
sophisticated communications
network between foresters and
a central post; purchase addi
tional, modem fire-fighting
trucks; and lease special
planes.
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