The blame game

As the nation emerges from Holocaust Remembrance Day, all the papers shifted their attention back to Wednesday’s Mount Herzl tragedy that killed 2nd Lieutenant Hila Betzaleli.

“Running from responsibility,” reads Yedioth Ahronoth’s giant headline over pictures of the three men arrested for negligence stemming from Wednesday’s collapse of the lighting structure that killed the IDF officer. Inside, a two page article features a detailed illustration displaying how the three men all blame each other. The three men arrested are: Elad Lavi, owner of the company ‘Stage Design’; Oren Varshebski, an engineer and the man who hired the security consultant for the project; and Itzik Tzuker, the security consultant himself. While all three men pass the blame between them, the police state that no written safety permits were issued for the lighting bridge.

Haaretz focuses its coverage on the fact that the permission to erect the light structure was not written down, but may have been given verbally. Haaretz’s article, “Without permission, without responsibility,” highlights much of the buck-passing and quotes Police Superintendent Eli Cohen on the nature of the investigation. “This is not about screw strength or whether the right material was used, rather about more fundamental failures,” Cohen is quoted as saying.

Maariv highlights on their front page another aspect of the tragedy, noting that all Independence Day stages must now be examined for fear of collapse. The inside article headline screams, “Suspicion: Forged the documents and took the money.”

Israel Hayom reports on its front page that the show will go on in Jerusalem despite the incident. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said in a statement that both he and Prime Minister Netanyahu think that, “the ceremony cannot be moved, it can only take place on Mount Herzl.”

Remembering Holocaust Day

 

Israel Hayom and Yedioth Ahronoth had almost identical coverage of yesterday’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, including the same headline, a quote from Israel Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino: “We swear, never again.” Danino was speaking yesterday at Auschwitz ahead of the annual March of Living. This year’s march had over ten thousand participants, including survivors and their families.

Haaretz reports on page six that the Finance Ministry is refusing to grant 2,000 holocaust survivors with benefits, despite them being recognized as such by the Ministry of Interior. Unbelievably, the announcement was made yesterday that though the survivors are from cities that were  occupied by the Nazis, the fact that the entire country was not, makes them ineligible for benefits.

Maariv had a very brief article and a collage of pictures showing Israelis worldwide participating in the holiday, including Israelis standing next to their cars for yesterday’s two minutes of silence, IDF Chief Benny Gantz standing at attention and saluting, and Israeli teens walking along the railroad tracks at Auschwitz.

Police on Thursday interviewed the woman who was the victim of an alleged gang rape on a Tel Aviv beach. Three of the papers covered the story, with Haaretz quoting the woman, “I drank vodka and did it of my own free will.” The woman stated that there no rape or group sex and media reports stated the police had decided not to investigate the matter further, except for possible public indecency charges.

Maariv reports on page seven that “After five years, Fatah is returning to Gaza.” Tomorrow in Ramallah, Fatah is expected to approve a plan to begin resurrecting its presence in Gaza. The new representatives expected in Gaza include, Abdullah Abu Samhadana, a top PLO leader who was recently released from an Israeli jail after a five-year sentence for committing terror acts.

Worldly Focus

International Earth Day coverage appears in both Yedioth and Haaretz.  Yedioth highlights the three winners of the Green Globe, an award handed out annually to the Israelis who have helped make Israel a greener country over the past year. This year’s winners are: Project Tel Ofen, the Tel Aviv bike sharing/rental program; Dr. Martin Wiel, head of the project to transform the Hiriya landfill into a park; and Avichai Sheli, a young deaf boy who lead the change for designated bus lanes in Tel Aviv.

Haaretz also covers the Green Globe Award but expands the article to include successes and failures of Israel’s green movement. Some of the wins that Haaretz credits to the movement include: Imposing fines on polluting vehicles, bicycle renting/sharing in Tel Aviv, and increased education in high schools and the Arab community. The failures include: a bridge being built in a valley near Jerusalem, the government’s preference to invest in private vehicles instead of public, and the continued construction in the Lakish region of south-central Israel.

In the opinion pages, Billie Muskona-Lerman draws attention to salary inequality between the genders in the Israeli workforce in a piece aptly named, “Who’s the boss?” Looking at the office for Equal Opportunity Employment, the government authority tasked with reducing wage discrimination in the workforce, researchers found that within that work environment there was a 31% difference between men and women’s salaries. With this as her starting point Muskona-Lerman uses other examples to highlight gender inequality in Israel. While the end point is obvious, the piece still urges more action to reduce salary inequalities.

Haaretz’s editorial revisits the Eisner incident and the “flytilla” from earlier this week and the government’s characterization of the protestors as anarchists. The op-ed quickly turns the government’s “anarchists” comment around and tries to show how settlers in the West Bank are running around without government control. With a report of illegal settlement building, the piece urges the attorney general to focus on illegal activities in the West Bank and not fight peace activists and human rights demonstrators.