NOVANEWS
By Jesse Bacon
This should remind us just how arbitrary the whole edifice of permits and
checkpoints is that it can keep out people who helped contain the horrible
fires and prevent worse disaster. I am also reminded of the U.S. soldier who
was the first to die in the Iraq War and was posthumously awarded the citize-
nship he was denied in life.
Israeli officials on Tuesday canceled a ceremony planned to honor
the Palestinian firemen who assisted in battling the Carmel fire last
week, after a number of crew members were refused permits to cross
the border.
Palestinian Fire Services Commander Ahmed Rizik said that he and his
staff were surprised to learn when they arrived at the checkpoint that
only seven out of the 10 fireman would be granted entry into Israel,
although all of them had been allowed in at the time of the disaster.
“There is no logical reason and I don’t know what the catalyst was,
but unfortunately we could not make it, and therefore the event has
been postponed to a later date,” he said.
The Israel Defense Forces said that the permits were denied due to a bur-
eaucratic mistake, explaining that the list of names was processed witho-
ut the firefighters’ identification numbers attached.
The army said it was now working on getting the honorees the correct
permits.
Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi deemed the incident a “not just a march of
folly or a theater of the absurd but stupidity and the normative lordly
attitude of the occupation regime.”
“This is a complete shame,” he added.
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