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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. (Tess Scheflan / Jini)
Last update - 08:03 11/10/2008
Livni tells Acre residents: Don't take law into your own hands
By Yoav Stern and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Acre, pogrom, Arab 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday paid a visit to Acre, the site of recent clashes between Jewish and Arab residents, that she said was aimed at sending the message that no one should take the law into their own hands.

Livni, who is also chairman of the ruling Kadima party, said even if people are angry, they should let the authorities enforce the law. "It's obvious that it's the role of the police to do this."

She said that in light of the violence, there needs to be a "message of reconciliation and cooperation to calm tempers within the population, so that [residents] will continue to live together." Livni also affirmed that Yom Kippur is a part of Israel's heritage and that, "Every citizen has to respect this day."
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President Shimon Peres on Friday called on Acre's residents and leaders to think of their city's image in light of the violence.

"There is no one in Israel who doesn't regret what is happening in Acre. Acre doesn't necessarily have to appear so, that grave events such as these would happen in Acre - events that embarrass all of the city's residents. No one will gain from these riots, everyone will lose from these riots," Peres said.

On Thursday, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) responded to the clashes in the northern city , calling the violence a "pogrom perpetrated by Jews against Arab residents."

"The police displayed helpless discrimination in its treatment of the assault on Arab residents," Tibi said.

The riots erupted before dawn Wednesday when an Arab resident of the mixed town drove his car into a Jewish neighborhood during the holy day of Yom Kippur, during which even secular Jews refrain from driving out of respect. Jewish rioters alleged that the man defiantly played loud music, and proceeded to assault him, sparking large scale clashes between Jews and Arabs in the area.

Israeli Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) said the incident had less to do with Yom Kippur than a deliberate "escalation of racist speech" ahead of Israeli municipal elections next month.

"We see a great danger in these attacks. They are similar to the pogroms that Jews were exposed to at the hands of the Nazi gangs in Germany," Barakeh told reporters.

When Acre police intervened, Barakeh said, "they fired rubber bullets and tear gas" to prevent Arabs defending their homes, to which police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld responded that police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse rioters, not rubber bullets.

MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) also responded to the incident, saying "exactly eight years after the October riots [that sparked the second intifada], it appears that nothing has been done to implement the recommendations of the Or Commission in regard to Israel's Arabs," referring to the probe panel that investigated the 2000 riots, during which Israeli police shot and killed 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian.

"We are sitting on a barrel of explosives, and every time we are surprised anew when the tension explodes, rather than making a genuine effort to stop it," Beilin added.

MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and the police commissioner must both resign over the incident. "The state of Israel has become the only country in the Western world where pogroms are carried out against Jews, with physical harm to them and their property and chants of 'death to Jews,'" he said.

"A police force that is unable to protect Jewish neighborhoods needs to take a hard look at itself," he added.

MK Eliyahu Gabbay (National Unity-NRP) said that "time after time Jews in mixed cities and in towns adjacent to Arab villages find themselves persecuted, victims of violent rampages by Israeli Arabs fueled by Arab nationalism and Islamic fanaticism and with the encouragement and incitement of Israeli Arab leaders."

"Israel's leadership needs to wake up, regain its composure and start protecting its Jewish citizens with actions, not just words," Gabbay went on to say. "Many Jews living in mixed cities feel that they live in the Diaspora. The government has to employ every measure to restore security to Jewish citizens.
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  1.   "death to the jews" shouted in the jewish state 22:31  |  judah 09/10/08
  2.   Liars 22:50  |  Ismail 09/10/08
  3.   Are Arab lawmakers lying? 23:08  |  Richard S 09/10/08
  4.   read the real story 23:13  |  sandra 09/10/08
  5.   Compared to Nazi Germany? 23:17  |  SDHD 09/10/08
  6.   # 1 judah 23:32  |  Axel 09/10/08
  7.   Isamil # 2 _ Do Jews Dare Come Into The Area You Call Occupied 23:46  |  Eli 09/10/08
  8.   Israeli police is like... 00:02  |  ivan 10/10/08
  9.   To ignorant Barakeh: 77% of Arabs choose Israel over anywhere els 00:12  |  Conroy 10/10/08
  10.   Violent jews know no boundries. 00:20  |  A jew. 10/10/08
  11.   Innocent Arabs never start fights,throw stones/Molotov cocktails, 00:24  |  PETER SM 10/10/08
  12.   Sandra, here`s the real story... 00:24  |  BBSNews 10/10/08
  13.   Only security for Jewish citizens? 00:24  |  C J 10/10/08
  14.   Police cars need patrol streets on holidays and Arabs 00:32  |  Alicia 10/10/08
  15.   Riots in Acre 00:39  |  Paul 10/10/08
  16.   #2 actually you are the liar 01:16  |  McQueen 10/10/08
  17.   Axel - the most popular cry 01:47  |  ChanahS 10/10/08
  18.   Paul, Taufik Jamal was trying to get his daughter... 01:55  |  BBSNews 10/10/08
  19.   BBS and his anti Israeli rants 03:02  |  E.A. 10/10/08
  20.   Israel: dangerous country for Jews 03:30  |  Salomon Mizrahi 10/10/08
  21.   DEJA VU 04:56  |  Arik Silverman 10/10/08
  22.   To ChanaS (#17): מה נשתנה? 05:59  |  Morris Valentine 10/10/08
  23.   BBSNews 06:20  |  Nephtaly 10/10/08
  24.   Having to call Arabs out 06:36  |  Nephtaly 10/10/08
  25.   #19, Morris Valentine 07:06  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/10/08
  26.   Morris Valentine 19 07:16  |  ChanahS 10/10/08
  27.   Ahmed Tibi 07:18  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 10/10/08
  28.   Gang against gang is no pogrom 07:22  |  x-ray 10/10/08
  29.   pogroms 07:25  |  Kathleen 10/10/08
  30.   #2 Ismail 07:26  |  Daniela 10/10/08
  31.   barakeh right, tibi wrong 07:41  |  odles 10/10/08
  32.   Nephtaly takes offense at *music*? 07:56  |  BBSNews 10/10/08
  33.   (#19) Morris!!! 08:10  |  S 10/10/08
  34.   Eyewitness report says different in Ynet 08:14  |  Jonathan 10/10/08
  35.   Even in 2008 08:15  |  Alexandre 10/10/08
  36.   The internal Arab danger. 08:44  |  Jean Van Daem 10/10/08
  37.   Naive 09:01  |  Lobo08 10/10/08
  38.   Jewish exremist no different than Muslim extermists 09:07  |  Lobo08 10/10/08
  39.   the true version of events 09:10  |  sam 10/10/08
  40.   Lets stop imposing our religions customs on others 09:15  |  Lobo08 10/10/08
  41.   conroy 9 09:48  |  potobac 10/10/08
  42.   chanahs 17 09:51  |  potobac 10/10/08
  43.   Paul 09:53  |  sh 10/10/08
  44.   Pogroms, geonocide, usual hysterics 09:58  |  FOX 10/10/08
  45.   #118 the wingnut who writes bbs news is a comic 10:17  |  victor hardman 10/10/08
  46.   Now now Conroy, don`t confuse them with fact 10:33  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 10/10/08
  47.   #2 - Hmmm "Occupied Jerusalem?" 11:03  |  Aviv 10/10/08
  48.   Typical Haaretz 11:28  |  Moshe 10/10/08
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  50.   The Arab car as Danish cartoon 11:53  |  Fritz T. 10/10/08
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  52.   potoboc first ignores american atrocities in iraq 12:05  |  yair 10/10/08
  53.   #19 Morris Valentine 12:31  |  S 10/10/08
  54.   There`s a thread of logic here 12:47  |  H 10/10/08
  55.   Sensationalist headline 12:52  |  Yonatan 10/10/08
  56.   just a spark - without dry wood there would be no fire 12:55  |  Jan 10/10/08
  57.   The fruits of negotiations is more violence ! 12:58  |  Akram Zekaria 10/10/08
  58.   holy days 13:05  |  T A Sheppard 10/10/08
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  61.   TIBI= revisionist 13:52  |  Hermina 10/10/08
  62.   #31 sh - Closed roads for closed minds 13:59  |  Yonatan 10/10/08
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  64.   Re zionizt #36 14:25  |  Esther 10/10/08
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  67.   sam 15:11  |  rs 10/10/08
  68.   #44 Examiner 15:12  |  Not Quite 10/10/08
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