Police search for man believed to have wrongly broadcast death of Arab driver from Acre mosque.
By YAAKOV LAPPINacre smashed shop 224.88(photo credit: AP)
A quiet Sunday in Acre gave way to a fifth straight tense night between the Jewish and Arab communities, as police dealt with another attempt to torch an Arab apartment and rock-throwing between Jewish and Arab youths in the city's eastern neighborhoods.
Police evaluations held throughout the day concluded that the violence was unlikely to end anytime soon.
Roadblocks were placed at the entrances to Acre as police mobilized hundreds of officers from its Special Patrol Unit and on horseback in anticipation of another night of riots.
Earlier, police detained for questioning at least two members of a group of right-wing activists led by Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir who had arrived in the city. The activists said they had come to offer encouragement to the Jewish population, and had planned on marching from mostly Jewish east Acre to the Arab Old City.
During a tour of the city, Marzel said he intended to set up a "self-defense league" for Acre's Jews, adding that he was sorry to see them living "as if they were in the Diaspora."
Some 700 officers including border policemen worked 12-hour shifts to maintain a fragile calm, sealing off neighborhoods and carrying out continuous foot and car patrols.
Meanwhile, police said they were hunting for a Muslim man believed to have taken control of the speaker system of a mosque in the Old City on Wednesday evening, at the beginning of Yom Kippur, and who wrongly broadcast that an Arab driver had been killed by a Jewish mob, causing hundreds of Arabs armed with axes and sticks to march on east Acre.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Acre's mayor, Shimon Lancry, said he heard the incitement being blared from the mosque's speakers on Wednesday evening.
"From what I understood, he said one man had been killed and another injured. He called on the youths to march on the eastern part of the city," Lancry recalled. "Because of him, 200 masked youths with axes ruined an entire area, and this is unforgivable. All the lines have been crossed."
Lancry called on the Israel Police to open an investigation into how the events of Yom Kippur were allowed to spin out of control.
"How has this been allowed to happen? Why have the rioters not been arrested? Those who incite must also be apprehended," he said.
While police were "doing a good job," Lancry said, he called for a firmer hand during the night hours when rioters hit the streets.
Arab residents and municipal officials told the Post that the unknown inciter was a religious man who prayed in the mosque, but was not a mosque employee or a sheikh (Islamic scholar). Many expressed anger at the man for inciting a mob to action based on a lie and causing things to deteriorate.
"This is the man who pushed things over the edge," an Arab source in the municipality said. "We know he prays at the mosque, but we do not know his role."
The official said he was worried that Acre would never fully heal from the nights of communal violence.
"I have asked my wife not to let my four-year-old daughter outside of the house. My daughter asked me why there are police helicopters overhead late into the night and why there are police everywhere in the streets. I evade giving her an answer. Her best friend is a little Jewish girl and I do not want her to start thinking in terms of Arabs and Jews," the man said.
Another Arab municipal official said, "What really bothers me is, how did an incorrect message reach the mosque and lead to the incitement? Why did the man say the driver had been killed? What some members of the group did [on Wednesday night] was terrible. Police will get their hands on the inciter."
The official also said he was disappointed with the city's Jewish leadership.
"The Arab representatives have succeeded in calming the Arab side down. We expect the Jewish side to also calm down. After four days of rioting, it is time to shift gears and the Jewish leadership must be more active." The official also called for police to make more arrests.
Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham-Balila visited Acre on Sunday, and said police should be thanked for working tirelessly to separate the opposing rioters.
"Thank God there have been no injured," Avraham said. "I hope all residents internalize the fact that this violence causes the city and everyone who lives in it to lose."
Avraham said she planned on initiating a range of programs in the coming weeks to encourage Arab-Jewish coexistence.
On Saturday night, an effort at Arab-Jewish reconciliation initiated by Public Security Minister Avi Dichter failed.
Dichter hosted Jewish and Arab community leaders at the city's police station, but the meeting went sour after Acre Chief Rabbi Yosef Yashar accused the city's Arabs of behaving like Nazis. On Sunday, the effort was renewed, but Dichter met with the sides separately.
During the meeting on Sunday, Jewish leaders called for a letter of apology signed by the Arab community's leaders and Jamal Taufik, the man who drove his vehicle into east Acre on Yom Kippur. The Arab leaders and the driver agreed to issue an apology, but said the Jewish leadership was failing to calm the city.
On Monday, President Shimon Peres is expected to join Dichter in Acre for further reconciliation attempts.
Dichter also vowed to channel a third of the expected 1,000 new police recruits in 2008 to the Northern District in response to the Acre riots, a source at the Public Security Ministry said.
Dichter said Acre was one of the three mixed cities among the 12 that make up the ministry's City Without Violence program, which calls on experts from a range of disciplines to work to reduce violence. Dichter said the program would now focus on Acre in a bid to reestablish coexistence.
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