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Last update - 17:03 12/10/2008
Gideon Levy / Acre Jews warn: Arabs will kill you with knives
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Arabs, Israel News, Jews 

A young woman - kerchief on her head, baby in her arms - stood behind the barred windows of her apartment yesterday and shouted: "Get all the Arabs out of here... We don't want them here... They've made our lives a misery."

The balcony blinds of the adjacent apartment are shattered. Its former residents, the family of Mahmoud Samary, are gone, having temporarily fled the hail of stones on their home. The young woman yelled: "They should get out. The Arabs are taking all our girls."

It was Saturday afternoon at number 18, Burla Street in Acre - part of a crowded, shamefully neglected housing project where three Arab families and 29 Jewish families inhabit a single building. At the entrance to the building, a group of policemen stood around idly. The street was lined with cars with shattered windows.
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It was not only Bosnia that Acre called to mind yesterday; the city was also reminiscent of Nablus - checkpoints at every corner, hundreds of policemen under every parched tree. A city that could have been a tourist attraction was instead the most miserable in Israel. My colleague Jack Khoury, an Israeli Arab, said as we entered the neighborhood: "I don't believe I'm traveling here in such fear and tension."

A young man who lives in the project told us aggressively: "Don't you dare enter the Old City. The Arabs will kill you with knives." He would like us to leave his neighborhood, too.

But the Old City, just a few minutes' drive away, was another world: In that beautiful but neglected neighborhood, which was virtually empty yesterday, people were mourning the cancelation of Acre's theater festival and still speaking of peace and coexistence.

Acre went up in flames all at once. It was a clash between poor and poor, Jews and Arabs, egged on by nationalists, with a religious holiday as the catalyst - the most dangerous of all possible clashes, which threatens to ignite a conflagration. The fire could be out by press time, but as of yesterday afternoon it seemed liable to break out anew: Young men from the housing project had agreed to meet at 7:30 P.M. that evening, God only knows why.

Yet even if the fire is extinguished now, it will reignite someday. This binational city is sitting on a volcano - a volcano of nationalism and distress, fear and hatred.

If the housing project was the tensest party of the city, the saddest was the Old City, where the empty halls were all that remained of the theater festival that was supposed to have taken place this week. The spotlights had been removed, the actors and directors were gone, the tables in the cafe on the lawn remained folded. Instead of the festival, Acre got a scandal - the scandal of its cancelation.

The technical crews said it was outrageous to cancel the most important event of Acre's year "because of 100 or 200 psychos." They suggested holding a reconciliation festival instead, and promised to ensure the guests' safety. "You also fight with your wife, but then you go to bed with her," analogized one, Asfari Khalil.

Munir Abu al-Tayir, who sells pomegranate juice, had thus far sold exactly two glasses all day. At a nearby felafel booth, a young Arab responded to Jewish claims that the riots were provoked by an Arab driver blasting music on Yom Kippur by saying that during Ramadan, the Jews had offended Arab sensibilities by drinking beer, but there were no Arab riots. Issam Jalem, owner of a barbershop, warned that without the festival, "things will not be good."

To all, it was clear that Mayor Shimon Lankri's hasty decision to cancel the festival had one purpose, and one only: to punish the Arabs who earn their living from the event.

F., an Arab resident of the largely-Jewish Kibbutz Galuyot Street, fled his house with his wife and children; now he fears the house will be torched. Salim Najami, a city councilor, denounced all extremists, Jewish and Arab alike. Daoud Halila, director of an Arab non-profit organization, accused the police of "pampering the Jews." Long-time communist Salim Atrash blamed the disengagement from Gaza, saying an extremist yeshiva that opened in the city following the pullout has been fanning the flames.

Atrash pulled out a copy of a notice that has been circulating on the Internet: "We will no longer buy anything from Arabs, we will not honor any of their holidays or any place of theirs. Arabs of Acre, go find your place in the villages." The notice was signed with an epigram: "A Jew is the son of a king, an Arab is the son of a dog."

Welcome to a little Bosnia in the making.

Related articles:
  • Three Jewish rioters hurt, Arab home set ablaze as Acre violence resumes
  • Haaretz Editorial / An unnecessary prize for violence
  • Livni tells Acre residents: Don't take law into your own hands
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      1.   Oh great and wise Gideon hath spoken 03:56  |  Allon 12/10/08
      2.   Welcome to a Bopsnia of YOUR making, Levy! 04:02  |  Yaakov K. 12/10/08
      3.   This outlook is completely out of touch with reality 04:21  |  Marcella 12/10/08
      4.   Happy New Year everybody 04:36  |  newageblues 12/10/08
      5.   Someone needs to get control 05:15  |  Mark Lincoln 12/10/08
      6.   Sick Levy at it again, guilty of incitement 06:14  |  Sam 12/10/08
      7.   Marcella #3 06:16  |  Miriam Ashkelon 12/10/08
      8.   Stop the Violence 07:28  |  Roxy 12/10/08
      9.   Gideon, Withdraw from Acco for peace ? 08:19  |  Jimmy Dhimmi 12/10/08
      10.   The great left wing dream of coexistance shatterd once again. 08:44  |  Jew 12/10/08
      11.   Yom kippur is the holiest day for Israel and the Jews 08:56  |  lily 12/10/08
      12.   We never had coexistence 09:28  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 12/10/08
      13.   Levy has a go at even-handedness, but just can`t do it 10:06  |  Freethinker 12/10/08
      14.   revealing article 10:32  |  susie 12/10/08
      15.   You deserve each other 10:39  |  Observer 12/10/08
      16.   Jewish nationalists are picking up stones again 10:48  |  Yossi 12/10/08
      17.   Yom Kippur the holiest day for Jews? 10:52  |  Avi 12/10/08
      18.   This article is a nasty piece of work. 11:12  |  Matt C 12/10/08
      19.   re Acre Jews Warn about ARabs with knives 11:16  |  Chafeeka 12/10/08
      20.   And what do the Arabs warn? 11:20  |  Jonathan 12/10/08
      21.   Without dramatic change of course... (much) more trouble ahead !! 11:29  |  Swiss (Dino) 12/10/08
      22.   Serious, not unsolvable problems 11:32  |  Ilan 12/10/08
      23.   Lucky you, Gideon 11:35  |  truly yours 12/10/08
      24.   The raeal aims of zionists!! 11:36  |  B.Saleem 12/10/08
      25.   Levy`s one and only script: Always Blame the Jews. 11:37  |  Ilil 12/10/08
      26.   # 8 Roxy is spot on! 11:50  |  Michael J 12/10/08
      27.   What would happen if Gideon Levy... 12:10  |  Joe Sittizen 12/10/08
      28.   Malmö Sweden 12:11  |  lady from USA 12/10/08
      29.   e.m Jordan is Palse 12:20  |  lady from USA 12/10/08
      30.   Observer who do you represent? 12:21  |  x-ray 12/10/08
      31.   Gazan, you`re so jealous that it shines out of every word 12:24  |  x-ray 12/10/08
      32.   There are 3 peoples living in Bosnia: 12:29  |  Kris Lazar 12/10/08
      33.   Overnight amnesia 12:33  |  Esther 12/10/08
      34.   Ilan`s wording might be offensive 12:43  |  Jackie 12/10/08
      35.   Sweden waits for you Gideon! 13:11  |  kobi former swede 12/10/08
      36.   non respect on both parts 13:12  |  Charles 12/10/08
      37.   B.Saleem 13:15  |  Ahmed from Budapest 12/10/08
      38.   Them or us and Danish cartoons 13:47  |  Fritz T. 12/10/08
      39.   coexistence for Gideon 13:48  |  ed 12/10/08
      40.   To SALEM from Gaza 13:54  |  Avraham 12/10/08
      41.   Esther 14:02  |  lady from USA 12/10/08
      42.   B.Saleem 14:03  |  Avraham 12/10/08
      43.   The Western way 14:04  |  Boris 12/10/08
      44.   Is ALL OF IT like that, or depends on who`s writing the article? 14:17  |  S 12/10/08
      45.   Gazan, thanks for your opinions 14:29  |  Alicia 12/10/08
      46.   Gideon Levy and antisemitism 14:30  |  carlitos mendez 12/10/08
      47.   Mr Gideon Levy ...Thanks for helping 14:32  |  israeli 12/10/08
      48.   Levy is muslim in hiding 14:33  |  Jacob 12/10/08
      49.   Acre - Two Peoples stuck with each other 14:34  |  Tzfonit 12/10/08
      50.   To Saleem in Gaza 14:49  |  T 12/10/08
      51.   Thank you Gideon 14:56  |  Carlitos Mendez 12/10/08
      52.   The Arabs want to turn Acre into an Arab city. 15:34  |  Jean Van Daem 12/10/08
      53.   This is shameful 15:38  |  Peter Dames 12/10/08
      54.   THEY MUST GO 16:08  |  Michael Kavodi 12/10/08
      55.   So mucy for Judaism being a religion of peace.. go home to Europe 16:08  |  anti-racist 12/10/08
      56.   Not so holy 16:11  |  D. 12/10/08
      57.   Hi Gideon, happy to read you again, but ... 16:19  |  Edith 12/10/08
      58.   I Have Traveled To Akko 30 Times A Yeaf For 4 Years-This Has Been 16:21  |  Simcha 12/10/08
      59.   To Gideon Levy: Your opinon doesnt matter! 16:26  |  Major Majority 12/10/08
      60.   Lady #41 16:40  |  Esther 12/10/08
      61.   Co Existance is a Myth 16:42  |  Ron 12/10/08
      62.   anti-racist,you go home 16:49  |  Canadian native 12/10/08
      63.   Simcha #58 16:54  |  Esther 12/10/08
      64.   "You also fight with your wife, but then you go to bed with her" 17:05  |  Jon 12/10/08
      65.   #21 Swiss , talk sense , no Israeli Arab wants to 17:16  |  TOMY 12/10/08
      66.   11 Lily Arabs defiled Yom Kippur twice 17:20  |  Ibn Musa 12/10/08
      67.   Eye for an eye??? 17:29  |  hope 12/10/08
      68.   Avi 17:37  |  Pamela 12/10/08
      69.   Levy-never strays from his course 17:38  |  Arie 12/10/08
      70.   Coexistence: If you will it, it is no dream 17