Gift to Palestinians from Scottish firefighters seized by Israel, may be sent back to UK: Report

Scottish firefighters may need to put out a diplomatic fire after a gift they sent to the occupied West Bank may have to be returned, The Guardian reported on Friday.

Scottish firefighters sourced, refitted and kitted out a fire engine with medical supplies and firefighting gear for their peers in Nablus last year. 

The fire engine was sent to the Palestinian territory last summer, and firefighters in Nablus have been waiting to receive it and protective equipment for the last 15 months. 

However, despite the fire engine having documented clearance, Israeli officials refused to let it through customs, impounded it at the Port of Ashdod in July 2024, and have now slapped the Nablus governorate with $21,271 in accrued fees.

Firefighters, who have been campaigning for the fire engine to pass through Israeli customs, are now speaking to the UK government about repatriating it to avoid the governorate paying exorbitant fees, according to the report.

Israeli authorities have said they have impounded the vehicle because the fire engine is a right-hand drive and they require it to be left-hand drive in the occupied West Bank.

However, the firefighters say they previously sent a fire engine to the West Bank in 2011, which was also impounded for months and then retrofitted to be left-hand drive. It was later deployed for firefighting duties, and there is an agreement to do the same this time round.

Israeli authorities remain unmoved. 

Firefighters in Palestine

The Fire Brigade Union (FBU) have subsequently made concerted efforts to have the fire engine released. They presented it as an early day motion in UK Parliament in October (where it garnered 35 signatures), took a letter to the Israeli ambassador to the UK in November and also protested outside the Israeli embassy in London. 

In an article in Firefighters magazine after the protest, Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack, said: “Firefighters in Palestine are working to save lives in horrifying conditions. As humanitarians, we cannot stand by while lives are being lost. 

“It is appalling that life-saving equipment donated by our members is being held by Israeli customs while Palestinian firefighters are in desperate need of resources”.

In February, the firefighters set up a petition that garnered more than 14,450 signatures. 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement sent to Middle East Eye that it has been calling on Israel to increase humanitarian aid into the occupied territories. 

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“The UK continues to call on Israel to increase humanitarian and commercial access into the Palestinian territories by ensuring all aid crossings are fully operational, international NGOs are permitted to operate freely and safely, and humanitarian supplies are allowed to reach those in need at the pace and scale that is necessary to tackle this crisis.” 

It also said that FCDO parliamentary under secretary of State Hamish Falconer and FCDO officials have raised the matter of this donation directly with the Israeli authorities. 

The Scottish region of the FBU lobbied the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to donate the fire engine, which they then refitted and packed with fire helmets donated by an English firefighter and firefighting kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), breathing apparatus, cutting tools, and medical supplies from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

An article in the Fire Brigades Union magazine shows that the relationship between firefighters in Dundee and Nablus extends back decades. More than 100 Palestinian firefighters have trained in Scotland.

Nablus in the West Bank has been twinned with the city of Dundee in Scotland since 1980. In 2021, the Dundee City Council passed a motion to officially recognise the state of Palestine

Firefighters in the occupied territories face a chronic shortage of PPE.