Palestinian firemen return from battle against huge Israeli forest fire without medals or ceremony
Marian Houk
December 06, 2010
Back in his office in Bethlehem on Monday, Major Ibrahim Aish, head of the Bethlehem Civil Defense Directorate - and leader of the team of 21 Palestinian firemen that travelled on Sunday to join the battle against the huge blaze in the Carmel hills of Israel's Galilee region near Haifa -- said that he and the team had returned about 11 pm last night.
Aish said that the order for the team to travel came directly from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday afternoon, following a phone call from Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
But, he added, he had already been alerted on Saturday morning to begin preparations, in case an Israeli request should arrive.
"Actually, they should have asked us from the beginning", Aish said.
There are about 900 Palestinian Civil Defense firefighters in the West Bank, he noted, of whom 30 are women -- and the women are all engineers, involved in the planning and coordination of emergency and rescue efforts rather than actually in carrying out risky operations. In all of Israel, with a population that is more than twice the size of the West Bank's, there are only a few more than 1300 fire-fighters.
The Palestinian firefighters in Gaza, which were once fully integrated with those in the West Bank into one Civil Defense force, have been a completely separate operation since the Hamas rout of Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security forces in mid-June 2007, Major Aish noted.
Major Aish -- who is himself from Bethlehem -- said that he had 26 years of experience in Civil Defense, and that it was probably because of his seniority that he was asked by the Civil Defense Commander in Ramallah, Ahmad Rizq, to head the Palestinian team going to Carmel.
He had participated in special training in Ramallah from January through March of this year, along with about 40 other officers from the various Palestinian Police, Civil Defense, Intelligence, and Preventive and National Security services, conducted by America's former Security Coordinator in the West Bank, Lt General Keith Dayton, and his team. The aim, Major Aish said, was to help bring everyone together in preparation for the establishment of a Palestinian State. "I only knew 7 or 8 of them when we started", Major Aish said, "but now relations and friendships have been established between us, and we keep in touch".
Sounding wide awake, fresh, and full of energy after an epic day of firefighting on Sunday, Aish said: "I like to help the people. This is our work: to help the people -- Arabs, Jews, or anyone".
The Palestinian team left for the Haifa area at 4 am on Sunday morning, driving in three Palestinian fire trucks [accompanied by one logistical car] -- less than one-tenth of the total Palestinian firetruck fleet in the West Bank.
No, Major Aish said, is not true that Palestinian fire trucks, funded by the EU, are more modern than those Israel has -- first of all, he noted, because, despite many promises, no EU-funded fire trucks have yet been delivered.
The PA has about ten firetrucks donated by Japan in 1994, at the beginning of the Oslo process, and another 30 to 40 more in the West Bank that have been purchased by the PA.
Major Aish and his hand-picked men from Bethlehem travelled directly to Jenin, using Road 60 to bypass congestion around checkpoints in the Ramallah area. A group from Ramallah went separately (via Atarot) to Jenin. When they were all assembled in Jenin, they travelled together almost straight north to the Jalameh crossing, where they were met by at the Jalameh DCO [District Coordination or Liaison Office] by an Israeli Army escort.
After entering Israel, they passed through Afula, and turned toward the Mediterranean coast.
The Palestinian team was first taken to Haifa University, where they did not see any command center, but they were presented to some journalists. Then, they were taken to Beit Oren, which he described as an "agricultural village". It was not destroyed completely, he said, some places were burned and some were not. "Some pine trees were still burning", he said, "but others were untouched. Trees that were 70 to 100 years old were completely burnt, as well as agriculture areas. Yet, we saw some houses intact and some farm horses alive ... I've seen this type of devastation before, but never on such a scale".
"It will take them at least 20 years to bring things back", he said.
The Palestinian firefighters worked from 9:30 am until 5:30 or 6:00 pm at night, until all the fires were extinguished there.
"In the eyes of our Israeli colleagues, I could see they were very glad we were there", Major Aish said, and added: "I see the possibility of peace and of us living together -- our human feeling was always present, and reinforced by ths fire"
However, Major Aish said that since the successful completion of the Palestinian firefighting mission, he had not been called personally by President Abbas -- who has travelled to Turkey on a two-day visit related to peace moves, while Israeli and Turkish delegations are meeting in Geneva.
But, he noted that before the Palestinian team set off, the Civil Defense General Commander Rizq transmitted the President's recommendations to be serious and take this matter very seriously.
And, Major Aish said, he knew it was also very important to show the world the work of the Palestinian Civil Defense, because teams from so many countries were also working to fight the Carmel blaze.
There hasn't been a sea-change, yet, in Israeli-Palestinian relations as a result of the Palestinian contribution to the international fire-fighting effort over the weekend.
There were no medals handed out by Israel to the Palestinian firefighters, and no farewell ceremony, but he did get a phone call of thanks Monday morning, he said, "from the person who received us in the name of Israel, the head of the Nature Preservation and Civil Defense efforts. He said he wanted to invite me back to Haifa", Aish, said, "and I wouldn't go alone".
"I told him that we, as Arabs, don't look for thanks or reward when we do something humanitarian".
While there, "I said to my Israeli colleagues that today we are fighting a big fire, but I look forward to fighting hatred hand-in-hand, Palestinians and Israelis together, because we are all human beings".
Aish said that the order for the team to travel came directly from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday afternoon, following a phone call from Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
But, he added, he had already been alerted on Saturday morning to begin preparations, in case an Israeli request should arrive.
"Actually, they should have asked us from the beginning", Aish said.
There are about 900 Palestinian Civil Defense firefighters in the West Bank, he noted, of whom 30 are women -- and the women are all engineers, involved in the planning and coordination of emergency and rescue efforts rather than actually in carrying out risky operations. In all of Israel, with a population that is more than twice the size of the West Bank's, there are only a few more than 1300 fire-fighters.
The Palestinian firefighters in Gaza, which were once fully integrated with those in the West Bank into one Civil Defense force, have been a completely separate operation since the Hamas rout of Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security forces in mid-June 2007, Major Aish noted.
Major Aish -- who is himself from Bethlehem -- said that he had 26 years of experience in Civil Defense, and that it was probably because of his seniority that he was asked by the Civil Defense Commander in Ramallah, Ahmad Rizq, to head the Palestinian team going to Carmel.
He had participated in special training in Ramallah from January through March of this year, along with about 40 other officers from the various Palestinian Police, Civil Defense, Intelligence, and Preventive and National Security services, conducted by America's former Security Coordinator in the West Bank, Lt General Keith Dayton, and his team. The aim, Major Aish said, was to help bring everyone together in preparation for the establishment of a Palestinian State. "I only knew 7 or 8 of them when we started", Major Aish said, "but now relations and friendships have been established between us, and we keep in touch".
Sounding wide awake, fresh, and full of energy after an epic day of firefighting on Sunday, Aish said: "I like to help the people. This is our work: to help the people -- Arabs, Jews, or anyone".
The Palestinian team left for the Haifa area at 4 am on Sunday morning, driving in three Palestinian fire trucks [accompanied by one logistical car] -- less than one-tenth of the total Palestinian firetruck fleet in the West Bank.
No, Major Aish said, is not true that Palestinian fire trucks, funded by the EU, are more modern than those Israel has -- first of all, he noted, because, despite many promises, no EU-funded fire trucks have yet been delivered.
The PA has about ten firetrucks donated by Japan in 1994, at the beginning of the Oslo process, and another 30 to 40 more in the West Bank that have been purchased by the PA.
Major Aish and his hand-picked men from Bethlehem travelled directly to Jenin, using Road 60 to bypass congestion around checkpoints in the Ramallah area. A group from Ramallah went separately (via Atarot) to Jenin. When they were all assembled in Jenin, they travelled together almost straight north to the Jalameh crossing, where they were met by at the Jalameh DCO [District Coordination or Liaison Office] by an Israeli Army escort.
After entering Israel, they passed through Afula, and turned toward the Mediterranean coast.
The Palestinian team was first taken to Haifa University, where they did not see any command center, but they were presented to some journalists. Then, they were taken to Beit Oren, which he described as an "agricultural village". It was not destroyed completely, he said, some places were burned and some were not. "Some pine trees were still burning", he said, "but others were untouched. Trees that were 70 to 100 years old were completely burnt, as well as agriculture areas. Yet, we saw some houses intact and some farm horses alive ... I've seen this type of devastation before, but never on such a scale".
"It will take them at least 20 years to bring things back", he said.
The Palestinian firefighters worked from 9:30 am until 5:30 or 6:00 pm at night, until all the fires were extinguished there.
"In the eyes of our Israeli colleagues, I could see they were very glad we were there", Major Aish said, and added: "I see the possibility of peace and of us living together -- our human feeling was always present, and reinforced by ths fire"
However, Major Aish said that since the successful completion of the Palestinian firefighting mission, he had not been called personally by President Abbas -- who has travelled to Turkey on a two-day visit related to peace moves, while Israeli and Turkish delegations are meeting in Geneva.
But, he noted that before the Palestinian team set off, the Civil Defense General Commander Rizq transmitted the President's recommendations to be serious and take this matter very seriously.
And, Major Aish said, he knew it was also very important to show the world the work of the Palestinian Civil Defense, because teams from so many countries were also working to fight the Carmel blaze.
There hasn't been a sea-change, yet, in Israeli-Palestinian relations as a result of the Palestinian contribution to the international fire-fighting effort over the weekend.
There were no medals handed out by Israel to the Palestinian firefighters, and no farewell ceremony, but he did get a phone call of thanks Monday morning, he said, "from the person who received us in the name of Israel, the head of the Nature Preservation and Civil Defense efforts. He said he wanted to invite me back to Haifa", Aish, said, "and I wouldn't go alone".
"I told him that we, as Arabs, don't look for thanks or reward when we do something humanitarian".
While there, "I said to my Israeli colleagues that today we are fighting a big fire, but I look forward to fighting hatred hand-in-hand, Palestinians and Israelis together, because we are all human beings".
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