Boats set ablaze in the Sea of Galilee
(Israel Fire and Rescue Services in the Northern District)
Seven boats docked in the Migdal Beach area of the Sea of Galilee caught fire overnight between Saturday and Sunday. Five of the boats were completely burned, and there were no casualties.
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Five firefighting teams that were called to the scene gained control over the fire during the night, and the Tiberias police have initiated an investigation. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and suspicions of arson will be investigated.
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Boats set ablaze in the Sea of Galilee
(Israel Fire and Rescue Services in the Northern District)
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Suspicion of arson as boats burn in the Sea of Galilee
(Israel Fire and Rescue Services in the Northern District)
The police also are investigating another suspected arson incident that occurred Saturday night in the Upper Galilee, after agricultural equipment was burned in a hangar near the Tzahar Industrial Park, adjacent to the Bedouin town Tuba-Zangariyye. Fire defense systems deployed on-site extinguished the flames and prevented significant damage to the equipment and building. This is another case of suspected arson related to protection payments and money extortion.
In March, the 2022 report of HaShomer HaChadash – a volunteer recruitment organization dedicated to safeguarding land and farms in the Negev and Galilee – revealed that 73% of businesses in the fields of construction, commerce, agriculture and industry have received demands to pay protection money, and the majority of them comply. Some 55% of the survey respondents, conducted in collaboration with the Israel Builders Association, testified that they did not report extortion attempts to the police. They explained that the inability to maintain anonymity and receive effective protection prevents them from informing the police.
The prevalence of this phenomenon is lower in the central region of the country and higher in remote areas, according to the report. The highest number of those paying protection money, 93% of repondents, was in the eastern Galilee and the eastern part of the Golan Heights.
According to various studies conducted by the Knesset Research and Information Center and data from the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA), it is estimated that the protection money enterprise in Israel generates hundreds of millions to billions of shekels annually.