From THE JERUSALEM POST , Oct. 10, 2008, by Yaakov Katz and Jpost.com staff:
Some 700 police officers were deployed in Acre Friday morning to help restore calm to the city following the Arab-Jewish Yom Kippur riots....
[Israel Police Commissioner Ch.-Insp. Dudi] Cohen said that 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...
...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 wounded in the successive nights of violence....
...Acre Mayor Shimon Lancry ...blamed Acre's Arab residents for the outbreak of violence. "The incidents over Yom Kipper were very severe, all red lines were crossed," he added. "The Israel Police must use the investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice."
Police said 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....
..."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 wounds and discharged.
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." ...
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