Acre Mayor Shimon Lancry to petition High Court of Justice if government refuses to cover riot damages.
By DAN IZENBERG, YAAKOV LAPPINAcre wrecked car 224.88(photo credit: Yaakov Lappin)
Acre mayor Shimon Lancry warned on Sunday that the city will petition the High Court of Justice if the government refuses to compensate victims of four days of rioting that began on the night of Yom Kippur.
Lancry spoke at a press conference during which he announced that the city had received $200,000 to compensate the victims: $150,000 from The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and $50,000 from the Jewish Agency.
According to the Arab human rights organization Mossawa Center, 30 homes, 80 stores and 100 cars were damaged in the riots. Five other homes were gutted by fire.
Lancry said if the government refused to declare those who suffered damages victims of "hostile activities," the city would help the storekeepers prepare a class-action lawsuit against the insurance companies.
He estimated the damage to the city from the riots, including cancellation of the annual Festival of Alternative Theater, at NIS 10 million.
Meanwhile, the Mossawa Center's legal adviser, Tamer Massalha, wrote on Wednesday to Finance Minister Roni Bar-On and the Knesset Finance Committee demanding they declare those who suffered damages be recognized as victims of hostile actions in the context of Jewish-Arab dispute, a legal definition making them eligible for compensation under the Property Tax Law.
By law, the finance minister can make such a declaration with the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee. The law authorizes the minister of defense to do so on his own authority.
So far, Bar-On has not replied to the request. According to Massalha, however, MKs David Azoulai (Shas) and Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) have said they will lobby for state compensation of the victims.
Meanwhile, the Arab mini-bus driver suspected of ferrying dozens of rioting youths from Acre's Old City to its Jewish eastern neighborhood was arrested on Friday and will be indicted, Galilee Police told The Jerusalem Post. The driver confessed to the charges, police added.
Police spokesman Ch.-Insp. Eran Shaked said the arrest proved reports that some suspects in the rioting had fled to the Palestinian Authority were unfounded.
On Sunday, Lancry said the man suspected of seizing mosque loudspeakers on the night of Yom Kippur and wrongly announcing that Jamal Taufik, the driver who entered east Acre earlier, had been killed, had fled to the West Bank.
Shaked refused to confirm or deny the statement, saying police were in the midst of a complex investigation into the aspect of incitement during the rioting. He said the arrest of the bus driver should serve as a lesson that not all reports of fleeing suspects were accurate.
The bus driver will be charged with dangerous driving and jeopardizing lives.
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