IT WAS 2 ARAB YOUTHS WHO COMMITTED THE FOREST ARSON THIS WEEK

Some culprits have been arrested in the fire that blazed on Tuesday, and one of them has confessed to the crime:

Two Arab youths from the village of Issawiya in eastern Jerusalem were arrested Thursday and charged with arson, for setting several fires in the area of their village. One of the fires was set next to an IDF base on Mount Scopus, and the other was set next to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. One of the youths confessed, incriminating his partner in crime.

Twelve soldiers were injured in the fire at the base, requiring treatment for smoke inhalation. But the two fires were among the smaller of dozens of blazes that hit Jerusalem and other parts of Israel this week, with the largest being two major fires in the hills west of Jerusalem Tuesday. Some 300 homes were evacuated, and hundreds of dunams of natural forest growth were destroyed or damaged in the fire. Highway One, the main road into Jerusalem, was closed for hours while dozens of firefighters fought the blazes.

Although the weather in Israel has been hot and humid in recent weeks, many Israelis believe that the fires Jerusalem has experienced this month – one estimate said that some 300 small and large fires were reported in Jerusalem and vicinity – were the work of Arab terrorists. Minister of Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovitch said Wednesday that the massive fire Tuesday was probably the result of arson motivated by Arab nationalism. Police have already arrested suspects, he said, “some for their nationalism, some for their criminal background.” Police term such arson attacks “spontaneous terrorism,” he continued. “You don’t need an organization to set a forest on fire.”

Arson and forest fires do go hand in glove with jihadism, and we should always be wary of the possibility that it was motivated out of contempt for nature as much as for humanity.