The fires in Israel are under control — but debate is raging over their cause
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amplified claims that the fires were due to arson, an accusation the fire department downplayed
An Israeli police officer evacuates a child from the wildfires. (Israel Police/X)
(JTA) — The wildfires that erupted outside Jerusalem, burning vast swaths of forest and blighting Israel’s Independence Day, have been brought under control.
But as the fires were contained, discourse in Israel focused on who or what was responsible for them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, publicly suggested that they may have been an act of arson, but the country’s police and fire department pushed back on those claims. Israel’s president highlighted the role of climate change in the fires.
While dozens were reported injured, and thousands of residents of the towns in the hilly area around Jerusalem were evacuated from their homes, no one has been reported killed from the fires, which burned some 5,000 acres, most of them forest. Residents have been given the all-clear to return home.
The fires, estimated to be the worst in Israel’s history, began Wednesday, marring Israel’s Memorial Day, a solemn occasion, as well as Independence Day, which began Wednesday night. Israelis on social media questioned whether the flames, coming amid war on a national holiday, were a criminal or terrorist act. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, suggested without evidence on social media that his father’s left-wing critics could be responsible.
On Wednesday night, the elder Netanyahu shared footage of a meeting in which he attributed the fires to “a combination of very strong winds, dryness, and open areas that have forests, which create a lethal combination,” as well as a “a possibility of arson.”
By Thursday, Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir were amplifying the arson claims. Speaking at a teen Bible trivia contest held annually on Independence Day, Netanyahu claimed that 18 people had been arrested who were “suspected of arson, including one caught in the act.” He then hinted that Palestinians were literally and figuratively fanning the flames.
“Our neighbors, who claim to love this land, are prepared, in their propaganda, in their incitement, on the Palestinian networks — they talk about burning the land,” he said. “We are the ones who love the land. We protect the land.”
And Ben-Gvir announced on Thursday that he had established a “counter-incitement” task force to stop arson as well as incitement to arson on social media. “These are terrorists for all intents and purposes,” he tweeted. (Ben-Gvir is lobbying for Israel to introduce the death penalty for terrorists.)
But by Thursday night in Israel, police and fire services were telling a different story. After Netanyahu’s speech, police clarified to Israeli media that three people had been arrested, not 18. And in the evening, Israeli Channel 13 reported that according to the fire department’s assessment, the main burns were due to negligence, not arson — though the report added that arson could have played a role in subsequent fires that erupted.
Around the same time, Netanyahu posted footage of his Bible contest speech from earlier in the day — with the erroneous arrest numbers edited out.
Ayman Odeh, an Arab member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, accused Netanyahu and his allies of manufacturing allegations of terrorism to distract from criticism of his leadership.
“There is no one like the Jews, who know well how dangerous false accusations are, from the Black Death, through blood libels to economic crises,” Odeh tweeted. “But this government learns nothing from history: neither about the dangers of incitement, nor about responsibility. Netanyahu was and remains the national instigator.”
Other Israelis pointed to the cause Netanyahu had spotlighted on Wednesday night — climate conditions. Dov Khenin, a former left-wing lawmaker, posted a fire-tracking map from NASA that showed fires breaking out across the eastern Mediterranean region. “For all those spreading conspiracy theories, NASA’s fire map shows: when there is a situation of extreme dryness accompanied by winds, large fires occur,” he tweeted. “This is what the climate crisis looks like.”
Avner Gross, a climate scientist at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheva, tweeted Wednesday that he was at a climate conference in Vienna when an acquaintance called him and told him his town was on fire, though residents had evacuated safely. “Thank you to the fire department, perhaps the only force that is taking climate change seriously,” he tweeted.
“This fire is part of the climate crisis, which must not be ignored,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said at an Independence Day event. “It requires us to prepare for serious and significant challenges and to make decisions – including appropriate legislation.”
Israel just completed its driest winter on record, according to its Water Authority.
Irrespective of the cause, several prominent Israeli civic rituals on Independence Day involve fire — and were canceled or tamped down because of the wildfires. The national torch-lighting ceremony, due to honor public figures including conservative American pundit Ben Shapiro — was called off, with a dress rehearsal airing on TV instead. Fireworks and an airshow were nixed. And authorities banned one of the core festivities of the day — barbecues in the park.
But as the flames burned, some voices still projected hope on what is usually a celebratory day.
“Every burnt tree hurts,” the Jewish National Fund, which owns many of the destroyed areas, posted on Facebook Thursday. “Every damaged acre is a reason to keep fighting — and to know that we will yet again grow the greenery.”
