Police: Acre disturbances sparked deliberately by Arab driver

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Police said the Yom Kippur disturbances in Acre were sparked deliberately on Wednesday evening when an Arab driver, Tawfik Jamal - a resident of Acre's Old City - made his way to the predominantly Jewish Ben-Gurion neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, blasting loud music from his vehicle as a provocation on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Speaking to Channel 2 News, Jamal denied he had intended to provoke local residents, saying he had driven with his 18-year-old son and the son's 20-year-old friend carefully and quietly from the Old City to the Ben-Gurion neighborhood, three kilometers away, to pick up his daughter from her fiancée's home. But police dismissed Jamal's claims. "This was a provocation. An Arab driver arrived in a Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur with blaring music, and refused to leave when asked to by local residents. We believe he was intoxicated. This was a deliberate act," Galilee Police spokesman Ch.-Supt. Eran Shaked said. The verbal confrontation between Jamal and the local residents quickly deteriorated into violence, as rocks and bottles were thrown at Jamal's vehicle. According to Jamal, he and his two passengers fled the car. The three were taken to hospital where they were treated for light wounds and discharged. In the meantime, police said, false rumors that Arabs were seriously harmed or killed by Jews reached the Old City, and caused a far more serious and organized incident in Acre. Responding to the rumors, hundreds of Arabs set out from the Old City toward the Ben-Gurion neighborhood, walking down a main road, smashing store windows and cars along the way. Reports said the mob shouted "Kill the Jews," "Allahu Akbar," and "If you come out of your homes, you will die." At the same time, a few hundred Jews had congregated in the streets of the Ben-Gurion neighborhood. Fearing a deadly clash, police acted quickly, mobilizing "a very large force" to prevent the two groups from confronting one another, Shaked said. "We used tear gas and other means to disperse the [Arab] group heading toward Ben-Gurion, thereby preventing a far more serous incident. Lives were saved because of this action," Shaked said. Five police officers were wounded by rocks, and two civilians were lightly wounded during the clashes, a result that Shaked said was nothing compared to what would have happened had police not acted swiftly to separate the two sides. Shaked said violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in the city was an "unusual" event. On Thursday night, tensions boiled over again, as both Jews and Arabs clashed with the police. Police denied riots were taking place, saying a demonstration was being held by Jewish residents in the eastern part of the city against the previous evening's incidents. Jews tried to break through police lines without success. "There is a demonstration and it is under control," Shaked insisted on Thursday. Police, including officers on horseback, had positioned themselves in large numbers in sensitive spots considered likely flashpoints where Jews and Arabs could clash.