Last update - 00:00 22/03/2008
Police arrest 2 youths suspected of stoning cars on Wadi Ara road
By Eli Ashkenazi and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents
Police arrested two boys, age 20 and 17, who are suspected of hurling stones at cars traveling on the main Wadi Ara Highway late Friday. The suspects deny any involvement with the incident.
In recent weeks, authorities have reported a noticeable increase in the number of incidents of rock-throwing at traffic along the major roadways and arteries in the north. Last week, a crowd of Arab youths stoned an Egged bus in the approach to Acre. The bus' front windshield was shattered.
Earlier this month, rocks were thrown at cars driving on the Tel Aviv-Haifa coastal highway along the section near the Arab village of Jisr al-Zarqa. Similar incidents were reported on Highway 79 between the Somech and Shfaram junctions.
Most of these incidents are believed to be acts of tomfoolery by children rather than the result of national-ethnic resentment harbored by Israel's Arab minority. A senior police official stationed in the Galilee district said recently that the widespread media coverage of these incidents only serve to heighten the motivation of would-be copycats.
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