At a memorial service yesterday for the 45 victims of the Carmel wildfire in Israel, hecklers angry at the government’s response to the fire temporarily stopped Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from speaking. They shouted him down, demanding that Interior Minister Eli Yishai leave the service. Here is an excerpt from an article at jpost.com:
…The tumult at the auditorium at Kibbutz Beit Oren began after Netanyahu took to the podium and prepared to give his speech. Off-camera, Danny Rozen, the bereaved life partner of former Haifa Police chief Ahuva Tomer, got to his feet and threatened to walk out unless Yishai left the room.
Rozen, whose life partner died in the northern city’s Rambam Medical Center days after she suffered burns over her entire body while attempting to rescue victims trapped in a burning Prisons Service bus, pointed at Yishai and said, “This man has no shame; either he leaves or I leave.”
After the ceremony ended, Rozen told reporters: “I only directed this toward Yishai; I wasn’t demanding a commission of inquiry. It can’t be that someone like this [Yishai], who served as a minister during this incident, will come and sit in the front row with the families.”
Rozen said that Yishai’s presence was “a slap in the face to the intelligence of the bereaved families,” adding that “what happens in this state doesn’t matter to Yishai, all that matters is what the top rabbis tell him, what’s in the Halacha.”
While he was speaking to reporters, a man interrupted Rozen, saying, “They aren’t to blame, not Netanyahu and not Yishai; the only ones who are responsible [for the bus fire] are the police who didn’t put up a roadblock.”
Prime Minister requests changes in wildfire response
The Prime Minister is requesting that the Cabinet approve the following changes in Israel’s fire management services:
- NIS 350 million will be allocated for earthquake preparedness and rehabilitating the Home Front Command’s fire fighting abilities. The allocation will also serve for establishing emergency centers in the local council areas, a communications network for emergency bodies and acquiring equipment for the evacuation of 400,000 people.
- NIS 350 million will be allocated by the Israel Cabinet to the Fire Service for the establishment of an aerial firefighting force.
- NIS 100 million will serve as a supplement to be used for these same goals in emergency situations, according to need.
- Responsibility for the Fire service will be transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Public Security Ministry.
- An authority, led by the Israel Director-General of the Public Security Ministry, will be responsible for the establishment of a national fire service by the end of 2012.
