Israeli Farms, Forests Ravaged : Arson Viewed as Newest Tactic in Arab Uprising

“I’ve lived here for 30 years,” said Carmel Shabbat, secretary of this Israeli agricultural settlement in the Judean hills, “and I’ve never seen fires like this.”

In the space of a few hours, wind-whipped flames had destroyed 70% of the settlement’s peach orchards, as well as wiping out 1,500 to 2,000 acres of forest nearby. The fires traveled quickly, scorching the yellowing grass into huge black patches on the side of the area’s rolling hills.

For the 60 families in Bar Giyyora, about 12 miles southwest of Jerusalem, the day of fires “threatened our livelihood,” Shabbat said.

Even though Israel is in the midst of its annual forest fire season, the concern of settlements such as Bar Giyyora is with something new and far more menacing: The country is being swept by a wave of fires apparently set by arson.

After arresting several Israeli Arabs--Palestinians living within Israel proper as opposed to those in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip--officials believe that the fires are being set in sympathy with the six-month-old uprising in the occupied territories.

Police Minister Chaim Bar-Lev told reporters that the fires are the newest tactic of the intifada, the Arabic name for the uprising.

After reporting to the Cabinet at its regular Sunday meeting, Bar-Lev said, “We suffer from this phenomenon every summer, both from negligence and arson, but it is greater this year, and there is no doubt it is part of the intifada and all that is happening in the territories and, in part, from the Arabs of Israel.”

As the fires spread in 10 areas Sunday, state-run Israel Radio referred to them as “the intifada of Israel’s Arabs.”

The intentional burning of forest land is particularly symbolic for both sides because it long has been a proud assertion of the Israelis to have caused the desert to bloom with trees.

A general strike by Israeli Arabs in sympathy with the Palestinian uprising last December caused widespread shock among Israelis, who believed that most Israeli Arabs were assimilated into Israeli society and did not support Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

“This year, there is no doubt that the vast areas that were burned were fires set by people inspired by the intifada, “ said David Angel, spokesman for the Jewish National Fund, which is in charge of Israel’s forest land.

In the last few days, fires have consumed forests and pastures near Jerusalem, burned large areas south of Haifa, near Nazareth and on the Golan Heights. One report said 50% of the pasturage in the Golan was destroyed by fire.

In the last two days, five Arabs have been arrested for arson in the fires--two from the occupied West Bank and three Israeli Arabs.

Moshe Rivlin, chairman of the Jewish National Fund, said that in the last six weeks, fires have consumed 25,000 acres of forest and grass. With the fire season only one-third finished, that’s about six times the average annual destruction caused by fires in the last 10 years, he added.

Loss in Forests, Grasslands

Rivlin said the total land lost to fires includes 1,750 acres of planted forest land, 1,750 acres of natural forest and 22,000 acres of grassland.

“The damage is not something you can repair in one year or one operation,” Rivlin said in an interview. “In some of these cultivated areas, it has taken 25 to 30 years or more to grow the trees. The fires are causing a lot of concern, pain and agony.”

The arsonists are particularly difficult to stop because a fire can be set by the side of a road, and the wind will quickly spread the flames, allowing the arsonist to escape undetected.

In addition, the Jewish National Fund has criticized Bar Giyyora and other settlements for failing to carry out weeding and take other precautions that would sharply limit the area in which a fire can spread.

“I invite the government, instead of criticizing us, to see what financial difficulty we are in,” Shabbat said.

Appeal to Cabinet

The arson problem has reached such proportions that the Jewish National Fund appealed for help Sunday to the Cabinet.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was quoted Sunday night as saying that because of the gravity of the situation, he has ordered a coordinated effort to deal with the arson problem.

Cabinet officials declined to disclose details of measures that will be taken, saying that they do not want to reveal their plans to the arsonists.

Fund officials said the government should force settlements to dig firebreaks immediately and use army and border guard troops to keep watch for arsonists.

“No matter what happens,” said Rivlin, “those forests will be replanted.”