Bibi Attends Ceremony for Carmel Fire Victims

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai both attended Monday a ceremony to unveil a new memorial for the victims of the Carmel blaze, which ravaged Israel’s north in December of 2010.

At first, both Netanyahu and Yishai were not expected to arrive at the ceremony, following year-long tensions between the victims’ families and the state over what relatives saw as the latter’s ineptitude in face of the disaster.

In January of this year, relatives and friends of those killed in the devastating Carmel fire refused to let Netanyahu speak during the official state memorial ceremony to deliver a eulogy to the victims.

In a further display of the family members’ rage over the government’s handling of the massive blaze, Interior Minister Yishai left the memorial after Danny Rosen, the partner of fallen Haifa Police Chief Ahuva Tomer, told Netanyahu that he would not remain at the ceremony unless Yishai stepped out.

For more, go to Haaretz.com