July 17th, 2007. At around 8pm an ISM activist in the Hebron area was informed of a fire on Shuhada street, next to the Beit Haddasa settlement. When fellow ISM’ers reached the house it was clear that it was burning inside because a lot of black smoke was coming through the windows.
A few minutes later a police car arrived. The ISM’ers tried to have the police call the firefighters, something which they showed no interest in doing. The Police said that since no flames were seen no fire fighters were needed, they did not enter the house and did not look through the windows which would have clearly indicated that there was a fire. Many Palestinians from the neighborhood did call the fire fighters, but the fire truck was not let through by Israeli Occupation Forces.
A little later another police car arrived. The ISM’ers were asked for their passports and informed that they could be accused of trespassing and arson, the arson accusation would, of course, somehow be for a fire that didn’t exist or, if it did exist, merit calling the fire department for.