Acre Yom Kippur driver released to house arrest

Suspect's license confiscated for 30 days; police blame 48-year-old Arab for sparking provocation.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, DAN IZENBERG
acre arrest 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
acre arrest 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Haifa's District Court on Wednesday placed Jamal Taufik, the 48-year-old Arab driver who entered mostly Jewish east Acre on the evening of Yom Kippur, under week-long house arrest and suspended his driving license for 30 days. Police blame him for sparking a provocation which deteriorated into four nights of racial violence last week. He is to be charged with dangerous driving, placing lives in jeopardy and offending religious sensibilities. Speaking to the media, Taufik described his arrest as a mistake and denied he had intended to provoke Acre's Jewish community. A number of eyewitnesses in east Acre have said they saw Taufik's vehicle passing through the area at high speed on the evening of Yom Kippur, playing loud music, and nearly running over a little girl. Taufik, who was driving with his 18-year-old son and his son's friend, had come to the overwhelmingly Jewish neighborhood to pick up his daughter, who was helping prepare for a family wedding. The NRG Internet Web site reported that after hearing of Taufik's arrest earlier in the week, a local Arab religious leader issued a flyer in which he called for withdrawing a letter of apology issued by 11 local Arab leaders, including himself, over Taufik's conduct and the ensuing Arab riot which rocked Jewish east Acre on the night of Yom Kippur. The flyer, signed by Sheikh Muhammad Madi, a member of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Acre, read, "We view the [Jewish] riots of Yom Kippur as a planned and premeditated act... It was nothing other than the outcome of secret hatred that has accumulated for years among a big racist group in the Jewish public." The charge of offending religious sensibilities, which appears in the Penal Law, is a controversial article. Critics of the law say it violates the constitutional right to freedom of expression and should be abrogated. A spokeswoman for The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said Wednesday that it seemed the police were using the law in a discriminatory manner against Taufik and that it has never before been applied to a situation in which Jew or Arab drove his car on Yom Kippur. "All of a sudden, they remembered there was such a law and decided to apply it," said the association's spokeswoman, Nirit Moskowitz. ACRI was also critical of a court decision on Monday to remand Taufik in custody for three days. "It doesn't seem justified," said Moskowitz. Among other things, she explained, there was a question about the reliability of the witnesses who testified that Taufik had been speeding. It is also possible that if he was speeding, it was because he was trying to extricate himself from an angry Jewish mob. University of Haifa criminal law expert Prof. Emmanuel Gross said the law against offending religious sensibilities has been sparingly used over the years and that in the past, it was applied against Jewish extremists. In one particularly well-known case, religious extremist Avigdor Eskin was convicted of charges, including offending religious sensibilities, for placing a pig's head on the tomb of Sheikh Izzadin al-Kassam, after whom the military wing of Hamas is named. Gross supported the decision to charge Taufik with the crime of offending religious sensibilities. "The law provides an appropriate response to the driver's actions," he told The Jerusalem Post. He explained that the law does not require proof that the offender deliberately sought to hurt religious feelings. "It is enough that the offender is aware he is doing so, and there is no question that Taufik was aware of what he was doing. He knew it was Yom Kippur, that Yom Kippur was sacred to the Jews and that he was driving into a Jewish area." Gross added that the offense is not a broad one that severely affects freedom of expression. "The law specifically talks about injuring religious feelings and not just any feelings." Meanwhile, an ad hoc group of Arab leaders in Acre has scheduled a press conference for Thursday in Old City's Al-Laz Theater. The organizers, including The Coalition of Acre Residents, Al Yater, the Acre Group and others will present a report on the riots from their perspective. Representatives of the 14 families who were left homeless will describe their experiences and their current predicament. While the Housing Ministry has begun to repair the homes of seven families who rent their apartments from the Amidar housing company, it has not been decided who will pay for the repairs of the houses owned by the rest of the Arab families, said Acre municipal spokesperson Sharon Dahan. In the meantime, none of the families has been able to return to their homes and are living in hotel rooms paid for by the city.