By all accounts, the Yom Kippur holiday in the Israeli city of Acre (Akko in Hebrew, Akka in Arabic) was an ugly affair, marked by riots and clashes between Jewish and Arab residents.
The violence was sparked after an Arab man drove his car into a Jewish neighborhood around midnight on Wednesday, a few hours into Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar which is observed almost uniformly by Jews in Israel. According to Ha’aretz, “Jewish rioters alleged that the man defiantly played loud music, and proceeded to assault him.” As well as mandating a 25 hour fast, the Jewish religion prohibits any contact with, or operation of, machinery on Yom Kippur.
The clashes continued through the night into Thursday. Ha’aretz again: “Police warded off hundreds of Jewish rioters, chanting ‘death to Arabs’ and trying to storm the city’s main road. Border Police officers and horse-back officers were trying to prevent the rioters from reaching the center of town. Meanwhile hundreds of Arab rioters gathered in the heart of the city. The violence resumed at the city’s train station with Arabs and Jews hurling rocks at each other. Police employed protest dispersal measures, such as water hoses, in efforts to quell the violence. Riots then continued in Acre’s Old City, where hundreds of Arab residents threw stones and burned tires. Several people were arrested, but there were no reports of serious injury.”
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported: “Hundreds of Arab youth stormed the streets heading for the Jewish neighborhoods. Violent clashes ensued and police managed to calm the situation only after they asked Arab dignitaries to pull their weight and influence the youngsters to stop. But en route home, the Arab residents destroyed property, reportedly shouting ‘Death to the Jews,’ ‘Allah hu Akbar [God is Great in Arabic]’ and threatening to kill Jews ‘if you dare leave your houses.’”
Politicians on both sides didn’t miss the opportunity to engage in hyperbole. Mohammed Barakeh, a member of the Knesset for the communist Hadash party, couldn’t resist invoking the Nazi persecution of Jews: “We see a great danger in these attacks. They are similar to the pogroms that Jews were exposed to at the hands of the Nazi gangs in Germany.” Likud MK Yuval Steinitz asserted that “the state of Israel has become the only country in the Western world where pogroms are carried out against Jews.”
Similar inflammatory comments were made by Ahmed Tibi (a Jewish pogrom against Arabs) and Effie Eitam (an Arab pogrom against Jews), while far-right MK Esterina Tartman was simply disgraceful: “The pogrom in Akko is yet another confirmation that Arab Israelis are the real danger threatening the state. There is no other way except for territorial and population tradeoffs.” Meanwhile, the Acre police were accused by both Jewish and Arab residents of not doing enough to protect them.
These shocking scenes are indicative of the growing malaise in relations between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was correct to stress the importance of stability and harmony in mixed cities (up to one third of Acre’s population is Arab.)
Cool heads must prevail. Arab politicians should not make irresponsible, offensive comparisons between state-sponsored persecution which ended in extermination and inter-communal tensions. Equally, Jewish politicians should not taunt the authorities with fatuous claims that violent antisemitism is tolerated in Israel, nor engage in hate speech about population transfer. Such statements do nothing to address the heart of the problem: how Jews and Arabs can share and live together in Israel’s democracy. There are no other civilized alternatives.
An Israeli Jew driving on Shabbat in an orthodoc neighbourhood would have been similarly pelted with stones. I wonder if the neighbourhood in question was something like that. I also wonder how they would know the driver was an Arab and not just some Israeli Jew who didn’t care about Yom Kippur. And how would people, probably in bed at midnight, would have time to jump out of bed, put on their clothes, rush out of their homes, find the rocks and still manage to aim them at a passing car. Something does not make compute in this story.
I’m also a bit disappointed that the average Israeli should lose their cool over a provocation like that. Wouldn’t it have been much more to the point to call the police with a complaint about someone disturbing the public peace and let them deal with culprit?
There is a lot more to this story that is not being told.
“Cool heads must prevail. Arab politicians should not make irresponsible, offensive comparisons between state-sponsored persecution which ended in extermination and inter-communal tensions. Equally, Jewish politicians should not taunt the authorities with fatuous claims that violent antisemitism is tolerated in Israel, nor engage in hate speech about population transfer. Such statements do nothing to address the heart of the problem: how Jews and Arabs can share and live together in Israel’s democracy. There are no other civilized alternatives.”
Well said, though there is one comparison which is appropriate: that of the recent rioting Muslim “youth” in France and elsewhere in Europe.
Comparing these minor disturbances to the Hoolocaust or even a pogrom is like comparing a rifle shot in the air to the dropping of an atomic bomb.
According to some of the news sources, it certainly was a religious neighborhood. Some of the sources cite eyewitnesses who claimed they saw this Honda racing along with the car radio blaring out, an obvious affront (but possibly also a giveaway to his being an Arab). They claimed they thought the car was racing towards two young girls sitting in the park, and had thoughts that it was perhaps a terrorist attack, similar to several such attacks in Jerusalem recently. The driver denies all this of course, saying he was driving slowly and didn’t have the radio on.
According to what I read, it all happened at about 11pm, not at midnight. In my neighborhood, albeit pretty secular, although it does have a sizable Haredi population, the streets are full of people well after that hour on Erev Yom Kippur.
Update:
“Just an ordinary man who didn’t think, and did something really idiotic. ”
http://imshin.net/?p=953
I’m wondering about the mob reaction. Is this the secular, liberal, laid back Israeli society of my younger years? So what if a car passes by on a Yom Kippur? How different is this reaction from Muslim crazies who take offense from a cartoon? Who respond to a perceived insult? Some urgent re-education in civic behaviour and duty is needed, the sooner the better.
It looks like the story has not ended….
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/violence-rattles-ancient-port-city-in-israel/
Your account of what happened left out a key detail which was reported elsewhere. After the incident with the car (in which noone was seriously injured) the loudspeaker system of a mosque was used to incite Arab rioters with the false claim that an Arab had been killed by Jews. This was the decisive factor which turned a minor incident into a large-scale riot involving acts of violence committed by hundreds of people.