Kids celebrating 'round holiday bonfire (Archive Photo)
צילום: מאיר אזולאי
Up in smoke
Jewish National Fund official accuses high school students of chopping down dozens of mature carob, pine and poplar trees for Lag b’Omer bonfires
The Jewish National Fund lodged a complaint with police Wednesday against the students and principal of the Barsim High School for allegedly chopping down some 30 old growth trees for holiday bonfires.
JNF inspector Moshe Levy discovered Wednesday morning dozens of trees, many older than 50 years, missing from Rihasim Forest.
The felled trees were found piled up in the courtyard of a nearby high school – laid out for Lag b’Omer celebrations, next Thursday night.
Levy said this was the second year in the row that high schools had violated the forest to collect firewood. And just like this year, he submitted a complaint to police last year, but the investigation went nowhere due to “a lack of public interest.”
Tree-cutters will pay
Amikam Riklin, the head of the JNF’s Inspection Department, told Ynetnews he hopes that this time the police will take the matter seriously.
“If we don’t catch him in the act, if we can’t deal with the wood-cutter ourselves, we'll have to go to the police,” Riklin said. “If the police decide that there’s nothing they can do, then we’ll go to the Education Ministry or any other body that runs the school in order to bring the culprit to justice.”
