http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5004Police say nationalist motivations behind Jerusalem area wild fire
Two Palestinian youths from West Bank arrested on suspicion of starting a large fire that raged in the area of Kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha • The youths apparently set the fire using two Molotov cocktails, one of which failed to ignite.
Efrat Forsher
July 10th 2012
Two Palestinian youths from the West Bank village of Katana were arrested on Monday on suspicion of igniting a large fire near Kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha. The youths were said to have confessed to the crime and re-enacted it for police, who said the crime was a nationalist act.
The fire was started two weeks ago near the kibbutz, which is located in the Judean hills just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, and quickly spread to the pool and guest house in the compound. Many visitors were evacuated and firefighters from Jerusalem and the surrounding area were called in to handle the blaze.
An intact, unexploded Molotov cocktail was found at the site, as well as remnants of another one that apparently did ignite.
After investigating the incident, police officers from the Harel station in Mevaseret Zion arrested the two suspects, aged 17 and 18. After their arrest, the two confessed to the crime and other acts of arson that took place in the same area over a period of several months.
"They reconstructed the act and said they did it to cause damage to the area. Their motivation was nationalistic," Harel station commander Chief Superintendent Gilad Bahat said.
A military court on the Ofer base remanded the suspects on Monday for eight additional days.
The use of arson as a weapon against Jewish communities, as well as forests and other targets throughout the country, is believed to have been employed sporadically over the past several years by Israeli and Palestinian Arabs.
In July 2011, a large fire raged through the Jerusalem Forest for several hours, threatening nearby residential areas and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. After a six-hour battle, firefighters managed to bring the blaze under complete control. Authorities believe arsonists may have set the fire.
On June 17 2012, 14 soldiers were injured, one moderately and the others lightly, when Palestinian youths lobbed fireworks into the Ofrit army base on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, sparking a large fire.
The assailants threw the fireworks over the gate at the entrance to the base, after which a fire broke out in a field and spread almost into the base itself. The base serves the Jerusalem sector of the Home Front Command. Soldiers who tried to put out the fire suffered smoke inhalation injuries and were treated at a nearby hospital.
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