Jawad Qatush
Photo: Ziv Birman of the Nature and Parks Authority
Palestinian arrested for arson just burning agricultural trimmings
Jawad Qatush is released after five days in jail when authorities agree that the footage showing him lighting a fire was merely his regular burning of pruned branches outside his home.
The Palestinian from Batir who was arrested after security cameras recorded him lighting a fire outside his village during the wave of fires across Israel last week was released on Friday. This came after all the involved parties reached an agreement that the man, Jawad Qatush, had no intention of committing deliberate arson and was not acting out of nationalistic motivations.
Qatush belongs to a family of agriculturalists on the Refa'im River. On the day of his arrest, he had left his home and began weeding and pruning vegetation in a plot belonging to his family, a few dozen meters from his house.
Jawad Qatush filmed by security cameras (Photo: Ziv Birman of the Nature and Parks Authority)
Once he had finished, he set fire to the pile of cuttings, as is his regular custom, but when he was documented by security cameras during the midst of a wave of fires, he was arrested on suspicion of attempting to carry out nationalistic arson.
After five days of investigation, his lack of criminal motive was made clear, and the decision was taken to release him from jail. His lawyers commented, "Anyone who's claiming that there's an intifada of arsonists shouldn't try to prove it by arresting innocent people."
