Cars and stores were damaged as Jews and Arabs clashed in the Israeli city of Acre after an Arab man was attacked for driving during Yom Kippur, the Haaretz newpaper reported on Thursday. The unrest erupted around midnight (2200 GMT Wednesday), several hours after Jews started marking Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest observance in the Jewish calender, when Israel comes to a virtual standstill.
A group of Jewish youths assaulted an Arab man who was driving his car, in an incident that sparked large-scale rioting between Jews and Arabs, resulting in extensive damage to dozens of cars and shops, Haaretz said in its internet edition. Police used force to disperse the crowd of several hundred peoples, the newspaper said, citing police officials.
About one third of Acre's population of almost 50,000 residents are Arab.
Arab MPs have for years asked security forces to take tougher action to prevent Jews from stoning cars driven by Arabs on Yom Kippur. One of them, Abbas Zkoor, said such attacks occurred frequently. "Despite numerous complaints filed in police stations, officers were not sent to disperse the racist gatherings," Zkoor said, according to AFP.
He called on religious authorities to condemn such behaviour, which he said "surely contravenes the basic principles of the Jewish religion."
