Fire victims confront Netanyahu
Knesset State Control Committee meets to discuss failure of fire, rescue services in tragic Carmel fire
The discussion was attended by Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Defense Minister Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.
Netanyahu, who met with representatives of the bereaved families earlier Monday, opened his speech by saying that while he wished to meet with all of the victims' families, not all of them showed up. Some members of the audience yelled out that they were not invited, to which the prime minister replied that they can meet with him at a later time.
Danny Rosen, life partner of Haifa Police Commander Ahuva Tomer, who died in the fire, accused Netanyahu of failure. "The prime minister postpones everything to tomorrow," he said.
Rosen also lashed out at Yishai. "The interior minister was named responsible in the comptroller's report," he said. "The comptroller writes that the continuing failures could cost many lives."
PM greets victims' families. (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
'Being bereaved is being handicapped'
Netanyahu asserted in his speech that the firefighting system has deficiencies that date back decades, and promised that he will allot NIS 400 million ($111 million) to the national firefighting service.
He mentioned that during his conversation with the families, he told them that the word rehabilitation, when it comes to recovering from the loss of a family member, is misleading. "Being a bereaved family is actually being handicapped, without a disability permit," he explained. "A part of your body is cut off, a part of your heart, but even though it mends, a stump remains."
He identified the purpose of the committee discussion as the examination of the ways to prevent a disaster similar to the Carmel fire from happening in the future.
Netanyahu addressed his conversations with foreign leaders regarding aerial firefighting aid during December's disaster.
"I called the prime minister of Australia and asked her to send planes," he said. "She told me, 'Are you sure? It could take a week,' I told her to send them, like in those old Steven Spielberg films, where you see planes leaping."
Netanyahu noted that the government published a bid for the establishment of an aerial firefighting unit that would include seven planes, but stressed that "nothing that we could we have done would have taken care of the Carmel fire."
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss listed in his speech the main points of the follow-up report that he has written on the Carmel disaster.
"The firefighting and rescue services are the weakest link in the system," he said. "Unfortunately, it has become clear not only that the firefighting part of the system was not improved, but also that its state has deteriorated to a point that it might collapse in an emergency, causing the loss of life and property."
'Netanyahu's behavior unworthy'
Chairman of the State Control Committee MK Yoel Hasson noted that the presence of the victims' families was essential to the discussion. "I invited the families to the committee with sufficient prior notice," he said. "Only in the last couple of days I realized that a part of the invitation was not completed, and I swiftly made sure to invite the families."During the prime minister's earlier conversation with the bereaved families, the mother of the firefighter Danny Hayat, who died in the Carmel disaster, asked that his name and the name of the 16-year-old volunteer firefighter Elad Riven be mentioned during Memorial Day, which is held annually for Israel's fallen soldiers. Netanyahu said that the request will be discussed.
Natan Tzadki, a relative of Yaron Barami, who was among the prison service cadets who died when their bus caught fire during the Carmel disaster, refused to speak with Netanyahu during the meeting.
"We are not interested in attending this meeting with the prime minister," he explained. "At 9:30 they called us from the office, and said that he wants to meet with us at 10:30. We didn't lose 44 people for nothing. It's undignified. We want a properly-arranged meeting, a focused and not rushed conversation."
Tzadki claimed that some of the families were not aware the committee was intended to gather on Monday, and that the Prime Minister's Office ordered the prison service not to invite the fallen cadets' families.
"This is unworthy behavior," he said.
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