Abraham Rabinovich, Acre, Israel | October 11, 2008
A CAR driven through a Jewish neighbourhood in this city by an Israeli Arab on Yom Kippur, the Jews' holiest day, touched off the worst Jewish-Arab rioting inside Israel since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada eight years ago.
Hundreds of residents of this ethnically mixed city clashed for two successive nights, leading to fears that similar rioting might spread to other parts of the country. Police poured reinforcements into Acre and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a call for restraint by both sides. "We must safeguard the ability to live together in mixed cities," he said.
On Yom Kippur, the Jews' day of fasting, cars are not driven on the streets of Jewish towns except for emergency vehicles. Even those Jews who do not spend the day in synagogue, as do the religiously observant, refrain from playing radios loudly or otherwise disturbing the silent solemnity of the day in public. Arabs traditionally show respect for the day by not driving into Jewish areas.
On Wednesday night (local time), however, an Arab resident of Acre, Taufik Jama, drove through a Jewish neighbourhood with his 18-year-old son and a friend of the son close to midnight. Jama said afterwards he was going to a relative's apartment across town to pick up his daughter. When he reached his destination, he said, he and his two passengers were attacked by Jewish youths and barely managed to escape.
A police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Eran Shaked, dismissed Jama's version. "This was a provocation," he said. "An Arab driver enters a Jewish neighbourhood on Yom Kippur with blaring music (on the car radio) and refuses to leave when asked to by local residents. We believe he was intoxicated." Jama denied that he had been playing the car radio.
Rumours that an Arab had been lynched reached the Arab quarters and hundreds of Arabs began marching towards the Jewish side of the city, smashing shop windows and car windows along the way. They were met by crowds of Jews and the two sides hurled rocks at each other while exchanging shouts of "Death to the Arabs" and "Death to the Jews" as police tried to intervene.
Police commanders met Arab leaders in an attempt to restore calm but rioting broke out again yesterday. Police used water cannon and teargas to pry the sides apart. Eight people were injured and several arrests were made.
The rioting was the worst inside Israel since September 2000, when 13 Israeli Arabs were shot dead as they blocked main roads and rioted in support of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.
Right-wing Knesset member Esterina Tartman said yesterday the Acre riots justified demands to transfer some Arab areas inside Israel to an emergent Palestinian state in a territorial swap.
"The Arabs of Israel are the real threat to the state," she said. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi termed the incident a "Jewish pogrom" against Arabs.
The ancient walled city at the heart of Acre, which contains significant remains from the Crusader period, is inhabited almost exclusively by Arabs, who constitute about one-third of the city's population. Jewish inhabitants live in new neighbourhoods outside the walls.
A four-day theatre festival, an annual feature that is one of the liveliest cultural events in Israel, is scheduled to be held next week inside Acre's old city. It is not clear now whether it will be in view of the ongoing tension.
A CAR driven through a Jewish neighbourhood in this city by an Israeli Arab on Yom Kippur, the Jews' holiest day, touched off the worst Jewish-Arab rioting inside Israel since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada eight years ago.
Hundreds of residents of this ethnically mixed city clashed for two successive nights, leading to fears that similar rioting might spread to other parts of the country. Police poured reinforcements into Acre and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a call for restraint by both sides. "We must safeguard the ability to live together in mixed cities," he said.
On Yom Kippur, the Jews' day of fasting, cars are not driven on the streets of Jewish towns except for emergency vehicles. Even those Jews who do not spend the day in synagogue, as do the religiously observant, refrain from playing radios loudly or otherwise disturbing the silent solemnity of the day in public. Arabs traditionally show respect for the day by not driving into Jewish areas.
On Wednesday night (local time), however, an Arab resident of Acre, Taufik Jama, drove through a Jewish neighbourhood with his 18-year-old son and a friend of the son close to midnight. Jama said afterwards he was going to a relative's apartment across town to pick up his daughter. When he reached his destination, he said, he and his two passengers were attacked by Jewish youths and barely managed to escape.
A police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Eran Shaked, dismissed Jama's version. "This was a provocation," he said. "An Arab driver enters a Jewish neighbourhood on Yom Kippur with blaring music (on the car radio) and refuses to leave when asked to by local residents. We believe he was intoxicated." Jama denied that he had been playing the car radio.
Rumours that an Arab had been lynched reached the Arab quarters and hundreds of Arabs began marching towards the Jewish side of the city, smashing shop windows and car windows along the way. They were met by crowds of Jews and the two sides hurled rocks at each other while exchanging shouts of "Death to the Arabs" and "Death to the Jews" as police tried to intervene.
Police commanders met Arab leaders in an attempt to restore calm but rioting broke out again yesterday. Police used water cannon and teargas to pry the sides apart. Eight people were injured and several arrests were made.
The rioting was the worst inside Israel since September 2000, when 13 Israeli Arabs were shot dead as they blocked main roads and rioted in support of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.
Right-wing Knesset member Esterina Tartman said yesterday the Acre riots justified demands to transfer some Arab areas inside Israel to an emergent Palestinian state in a territorial swap.
"The Arabs of Israel are the real threat to the state," she said. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi termed the incident a "Jewish pogrom" against Arabs.
The ancient walled city at the heart of Acre, which contains significant remains from the Crusader period, is inhabited almost exclusively by Arabs, who constitute about one-third of the city's population. Jewish inhabitants live in new neighbourhoods outside the walls.
A four-day theatre festival, an annual feature that is one of the liveliest cultural events in Israel, is scheduled to be held next week inside Acre's old city. It is not clear now whether it will be in view of the ongoing tension.
Source: The Australian
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