Police clashed with Jewish protesters in Acre on Friday as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni travelled to the northern Israeli city to appeal for calm after two days of clashes between Arab and Jews. Police fired a water cannon at the crowd of about 200 people as some demonstrators hurled bottles and stones at security forces.
Chanting "death to Arabs," the protesters were headed from a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood to the house of an Arab when police intervened. The incident took place just hours after Livni, who is trying to form a new government and replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, travelled to Acre, where she issued what she said was "a message of reconciliation and co-operation to calm tempers within the population."
Police deployed an additional 500 officers to help the 200-strong local force after violence broke out on Wednesday night as Jews observed Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. "We have also raised our level of alert throughout the country so that similar incidents do not occur again in Acre, or elsewhere," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also appealed for calm. "Jews and Arabs must stop immediately this violence which will not benefit anyone," he said in a statement. Two protesters and a police officer have been lightly wounded. Twelve people - Arabs and Jews - have been arrested since the first clashes broke out, Rosenfeld said. About 100 cars and 40 stores were damaged by Arab demonstrators, he said.
Rosenfeld said the initial unrest erupted when an Arab motorist drove into a neighbourhood where Arabs and Jews live, playing his car stereo loudly. A group of Jewish youths assaulted the driver, accusing him of deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur, when most Jews in Israel observe a religious ban on driving.
"Rumours then spread out, namely from mosques, claiming that the motorist had been killed, prompting several hundred Arabs to take to the streets," Rosenfeld said. Clashes started again on Thursday, when rioters from both sides hurled rocks at each other and the police used tear gas to disperse them, media reported.
Football matches planned for the weekend were cancelled as was an annual theatre festival that was to be held next week and which usually draws thousands of visitors to the Mediterranean coastal city, media reported. Some MPs criticised the decision to call off the festival. "It is an expression of coexistence in Acre," said Ophir Pinez-Paz, who heads the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee.
SPEAKING ON ARMY RAD "One should not be surprised if Jews take up arms to defend themselves while the police does nothing to protect them," Eldad said. Arab MP Mohammed Barakeh blamed "Jewish fascist gangs," which he said operate against the city's Arab population "with complicity from the police." About one third of Acre's population of almost 50,000 are Arabs.
The Haaretz daily meanwhile said several ambulances were pelted with stones to protest their operating on a holiday. An ailing 76-year-old told the daily about 50 Jewish religious students hurled stones from a bridge at the vehicle transporting him to a Haifa hospital.
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