Model city of harmony overcome by hatred

Israelis chant anti-Arab slogans during a protest in the mixed northern Israeli city of Acre, on 10 Oct 2008.

Israel has been suffering its worst bout of communal violence since the start of the second intifada, with a week of what has been widely presented as "rioting" by Jewish and Arab residents of the northern port city of Acre. The outbursts were triggered by events on the night of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The country effectively shuts down for 24 hours as religious Jews fast and abstain from most activity, leaving secular Jews little choice but to do likewise.

According to reports, Tawfik Jamal, an Arab resident, outraged a group of Jews by disturbing the day's sanctity and driving to relatives in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood. He and his teenage son were pelted with stones. The pair sought sanctuary in the relatives' home as a mob gathered outside chanting "death to the Arabs". Israeli police who tried to rescue the family fled when they were attacked, too.

With news of Mr Jamal's death mistakenly broadcast over mosque loudspeakers, Arab youths marched to the city centre and smashed shop windows in a display of anger. In subsequent days, Jewish gangs have roamed Acre's streets and torched several Arab homes, forcing dozens of Arab families living in Jewish-dominated areas to flee. Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, observed that what is occurring in Acre was not a riot but a "pogrom", conducted by Jewish residents against their Arab neighbours.

Communal tensions are always high in the half a dozen "mixed cities" like Acre, the only places in Israel where Jews and Arabs live in proximity, even if in largely separate neighbourhoods. But the situation has grown especially strained in Acre, where some Arab residents have escaped the deprivation and overcrowding of their main neighbourhood, the walled Old City, by moving to Jewish areas. Acre's Arabs are also numerically strong, comprising a third of the local population.

Despite pronouncements from Israeli leaders that the violence is damaging Acre's image as a model of coexistence, the reality is of a deeply divided city, where the wounds of the 1948 war have yet to heal. During the war, most local Palestinians were either killed or forced to leave, with the remainder penned up in the old city. Jewish immigrants, brought to settle the empty houses, were encouraged to see themselves as reclaiming the city for Jews.

In recent years, the movement of Arab families into these "Judaised" neighbourhoods has revived talk of the need for Acre to be cleansed again of its Arabs. The problem has been exacerbated by the relocation to Acre of some of the fanatical settlers withdrawn from Gaza three years ago and by the founding of a hesder yeshiva, a school for religious men that combines army service. The police have stated that the violence in Acre caught them by surprise, but there was little justification for their complacency.

Abbas Zakour, an Arab member of parliament and an Acre resident, had written to the public security minister days before Yom Kippur warning that it would offer a pretext for Jewish extremists to attack Arab residents. He was concerned that, as in previous years, Jews would throw stones at Arab cars breaking the unofficial 24-hour curfew in the Galilee region, where Arabs are a majority. The failure of the police to intervene, he said, "leads the Arab public to believe that police are deliberately allowing the young Jews to attack innocent Arab residents who drive by".

In a society where the grip of Jewish religious fundamentalism is tightening - stoked by the high birth rate of ultra-Orthodox Jews and the state's generous support of a separate religious education system - such incidents regularly occur on Yom Kippur and less frequently on Saturdays, the official day of rest. The local media reported that over Yom Kippur, ambulances and paramedics were stoned. At one point, Acre's ambulance station was surrounded by Jewish youths who smashed its windows. As a result, Eli Been, the service's local director, ordered staff to wear helmets and bulletproof vests.

What has particularly disturbed the Arab minority, however, has been the response from politicians and the police to events in Acre. Israeli leaders have tried to calm tensions by paying lip service to the idea of coexistence. But at the same time, rather than denouncing the Jewish mob, they have intimated that Acre's Arab residents provoked the attacks. During Sunday's cabinet meeting, Ehud Olmert, the outgoing prime minister, stressed, in reference to the Yom Kippur violence, that the wider Arab population must act "according to the norms of a democratic state".

His probable successor, Tzipi Livni, added of Yom Kippur that "every citizen has to respect this day" - a reprimand to Arab citizens for driving rather than to extremist Jews for turning into a lynch mob. Such indirect condemnations roused others to greater provocation. Yuval Steinitz, of the Likud Party, called the violence a "pogrom" against, rather than by, Acre's Jews. Yosef Yashar, the local chief rabbi, compared the city's Arabs to Nazis. And on Monday, Jewish far-right activists arrived in Acre from Hebron to stir things further.

Mr Jamal, the hapless driver who provoked the violence, has been widely blamed - apparently without evidence - for playing his music loudly and smoking while driving, as though this justified the attack. He was finally brought before the parliament on Sunday to demonstrate his contrition. To much abuse from right-wing legislators, he asked for forgiveness and told the parliament he was ready to "sacrifice his neck" to restore good relations between the two communities.

The next day Shimon Peres, the country's president, reminded community leaders: "There is one law and one police." As if to disprove him, the police arrested Mr Jamal the same day, charging him with offending religious sensitivities, speeding and reckless endangerment, though he was released to house arrest yesterday. Mr Tibi, the parliamentarian, sounded a rare note of sanity when he observed: "I wonder if they will start to arrest Jews who eat and drink during the month of Ramadan."

Meanwhile, Acre's Jewish residents are organising a boycott of Arab businesses. They have apparently been joined by Shimon Lankri, the mayor, who cancelled the annual drama festival due to be held in the Old City in a few days. His move was widely interpreted as a way to "punish" Arab residents, who are major beneficiaries of the event. Articulating popular sentiments, a senior police officer told a local website: "The Arab public will pay dearly for the events of Yom Kippur eve. They have succeeded in greatly antagonising the Jewish population, and I don't see them being forgiven for the next few years."