A Chilean court on Tuesday eased the travel restrictions on Rotem Singer, the
Israeli backpacker suspected of starting a massive brushfire in the south of the
country last month.
A panel of judges overruled a previous decision that
prohibited Singer from leaving Patagonia until the conclusion of legal
procedures against him.
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Rabbi Menashe Permann, a Chabad emissary in the
country, has agreed to take Singer in and help him find accommodations in
Santiago, the capital.
The 23-year-old backpacker is expected to stay
there pending the completion of his court hearings.
Last month Singer was
accused of inadvertently starting a brushfire which consumed thousands of acres
of forests in a nature reserve in the south of Chile.
Several prominent
Chileans including Senator Eugenio Tuma, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the Chilean Senate and member of the Party for Democracy, and Fuad Chahin, a
member of the Christian Democratic Party, insinuated that Israel stood directly
behind the blaze.
Chahin posted a tweet questioning whether Singer was
sent to Chile by Israel to start the fire.
The Anti-Defamation League
(ADL) responded that such theories were scandalous and anti-Semitic.
“The
outrageous and bigoted scapegoating of Jews and Israel in the Patagonian fires
needs to stop right now,” said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman.
“Irrespective of whether or not the Israeli individual was responsible for the
fire, there is absolutely no justification for these kinds of anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories.” Police are continuing to investigate the fire but in
recent weeks evidence has emerged that seems to suggest several arsonists caused
the devastating blaze, rather than one individual.
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