Daniel Lubetzky

And on the very negative side, as reported here, small mistakes led to what is already a tragedy: 3 days of violent attacks between Arabs and Jews in the ancient site of Akko (Acre), within Israel.  If it is not managed through political and communal leadership into an aberration in an area normally known for peaceful relations, it could be an omen for terrible things to come.

Livni urges calm after Arabs, Jews clash in Israel

REUTERS, Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:02pm EDT

By Haim Shafir

ACRE, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli prime minister-designate visited the ancient port of Acre on Friday to call for calm between Jews and Arabs after two nights of clashes which revived fears that go to the heart of Israel’s identity.

Tzipi Livni, who is trying to form a new government following the resignation of premier Ehud Olmert, urged people from both the town’s communities not to let anger turn into the violence that left shops and cars damaged and several people injured over Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.

Politicians on either side of the ethnic and religious divide in what a majority insists must be a fundamentally Jewish state hurled accusations of "pogroms" and complained about the police. Livni said she expected leaders to set an example of harmony.

"This is a kind of watershed," she said in Acre, where Arabs and Jews live in separate neighborhoods.

"The only message to be relayed today — and this is for the national leadership, the local leadership, everyone — from now on, we take ourselves in hand, embrace each other, together."

Livni, who is foreign minister, also said that all Israeli citizens should respect Yom Kippur and that the rites of silence and prayer of what is also known as the Day of Atonement were essential elements of the character of the state of Israel.

Trouble started in Acre after dark on Wednesday when an Arab drove into a Jewish district, disturbing the start of 24 hours in which Jews abstain from using cars and other machinery. As word spread from mosque loudspeakers of Jewish youths stoning the car, Arab crowds responded angrily.

The powerful Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties with which Livni is negotiating to form a new coalition would expect her to defend religious observance on Yom Kippur.

However, her insistence that Jewish faith lies at the heart of the state is also a reason why many of its 1.5 million Arabs — one Israeli citizen in five — feel alienated.

"The pogrom in Acre marks the start of an intifada in the heart of the country," right-wing lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman said, employing the terms for attacks on Jews in Tsarist Russia and for Palestinian revolts against Israeli occupation.

Arab legislator Ahmed Tibi fired back: "What happened in Acre is a pogrom by Jewish hooligans against Arab residents."

Inside the town of 46,000, once the Crusader capital of the Holy Land, people sounded anxious to put trouble behind them:

"Everybody is shocked because nothing like this has ever happened," said Walla Zachnini, a Jew. "We are one people."

Arab Jad Kamal said: "That’s the secret of this town, people living together for 60, 70, 80 years. We’re all brothers."

Nonetheless, hundreds of police were on hand and the mayor canceled an annual festival scheduled for next week.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed in principle on a two-state solution in which the 4 million Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza would eventually have a state.

However, as U.S.-sponsored negotiations — led by Livni on the Israeli side — appear to be petering out, there is again more talk of a single state incorporating Jews and Arabs.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Israel’s Acre suffers third night of violence

Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:17pm EDT

By Ammar Awad

ACRE, Israel (Reuters) – Rioters in northern Israel torched two houses and badly damaged several others in the third night of tensions between Jewish and Arab residents of Acre, officials said Saturday.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Arab residents were evacuated before their homes were set alight and that nobody was injured. He said police remained on very high alert.

Sami Hawary, an Israeli-Arab resident of Acre who heads a group which works for cooperation between Arabs and Jews, said that during the early hours of Saturday angry Jewish residents set fire to two houses and damaged eight others.

"There were scores of angry Jewish residents, mainly younger people who set fire to the homes, the tension is very high here, things are on a knife-edge," Hawary told Reuters.

Friday, Israeli prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni visited Acre and urged a return to calm from both communities. Livni is trying to form a new government following the resignation of premier Ehud Olmert.

Abbas Zakour, an Israeli Arab lawmaker from Acre confirmed 10 homes had been damaged and that tensions remained high.

"Jews burned 10 homes inside a Jewish area last night, there is calm at the moment but the tensions remain," he told Reuters.

Rosenfeld said police had worked through the night to contain sporadic violence in the city of 46,000 and remained on high alert to counter further outbreaks. He said officers had arrested 12 people from both communities.

Many shops and restaurants in the old town, a popular tourist destination which was once the Crusader capital of the Holy Land, remained closed Saturday, Rosenfeld said.

Trouble started in Acre after dark Wednesday at the start of the Yom Kippur, the holiest day for Jews, when an Arab drove into a Jewish district, disturbing the start of 24 hours during which many Jews fast and abstain from driving.

As word spread from mosque loudspeakers of Jewish youths stoning the car, Arab crowds responded angrily, causing widespread damage to cars and shops in a main city street.

Relations between Jews and the mostly Muslim Arabs have been sometimes tense in Israel and dog the nature of a peace settlement which still eludes the two communities, 60 years after Israel was established in what was then Palestine.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed in principle on a two-state solution in which the 4 million Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza, many descended from those driven out or who fled Israel during the war of 1948, would eventually have a state.

As a result of the violence, Acre’s mayor canceled an annual theater festival set to take place in the city next week but Israeli Culture Minister Galeb Magadla, himself an Israeli-Arab, said it was the wrong move.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Matthew Jones)