Yom Kippur riots garner strong reactions from lawmakers

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
acre smashed window 224.88 (photo credit: Channel 10)
acre smashed window 224.88
(photo credit: Channel 10)
Some 500 policemen were deployed in Acre Friday morning to help restore calm to the city after Arab-Jewish Yom Kippur riots, which Israel Police Commissioner Ch.-Insp. Dudi Cohen insisted were local incidents only. Following a meeting Thursday night with senior representatives from both sides, the Israel Police chief called on Jews and Arabs to ensure tensions subside and to prevent the violence from spreading to other nearby neighborhoods. Cohen said that the police would aim to restore calm to the city with the help of reinforcements. "What happened on Yom Kippur was very severe, and both the city's Jewish and Arab leaders, as well as the police, will learn lessons from it," he said, stressing, "This was a local incident only." "I call on both sides, Jews and Arabs, the continue coexisting as they have done for years and to respect one another," he said, calling on public figures and local leaders not to fan the flames of violence. Hundreds of the city's Arab residents vandalized Jewish-owned shops and vehicles and clashed with police in the violence, which broke out on Wednesday night. On Thursday evening, tensions boiled over again during a demonstration held by Jews against the previous evening's occurrences. Both Jews and Arabs clashed with police in various parts of the racially divided city, leading to 10 arrests. In total, at least eight people were lightly injured in the successive nights of violence. For part of Thursday evening, the city was in lockdown, its entrances temporarily closed off, as hundreds of riot and border police armed with water cannons and tear gas worked to restore calm to Acre's streets. Police say the disturbances 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 fiancé'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 injuries and released. 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. Cmdr. Shimon Koren, Northern District police chief, arrived in Acre to oversee police operations. "Our aim is to prevent Jews and Arabs from clashing," he said. "We won't allow anyone to riot." Cohen held a special situation analysis meeting at an Acre police station on Thursday evening and he admitted that local police were caught off guard by the outbreak of hostilities. "I am aware of the evidence and witness to the consequences," Cohen said, alluding to the widespread damage. "It is difficult for me to assess whether the incident was nationalistically motivated or simply an act of hooliganism; we will know this later on. I wish to stress that the Acre Police Department is prepared for this Yom Kippur in accordance with recent years and we had no information indicating that such as incident was about to occur."