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Last update - 07:56 18/06/2009
Israeli Arab town erupts in Christian-Druze riots
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel news, druze, shfaram 

Police, Border Police, including anti-riot squads, spread out in Shfaram Wednesday to prevent the resumption of armed riots and clashes between the Druze and Christian communities that hit the town on Tuesday night.

"These are not ordinary disturbances. These are very grave events that included fire arms, and only by luck officers were not hurt," a senior police officer said.

The forces were deployed mainly between the town's Druze neighborhood and Christian homes in the town center after a night of riots during which four policemen were lightly injured by stones, and a riot control vehicle was damaged by gun shots. An officer who came under gun fire was saved by the flak jacket he was wearing.
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Rioters torched cars and damaged shops and houses in the city center, mainly those belonging to Christians. Police officers armed with stun guns clashed until dawn with hundreds of rioting youngsters, mostly from the Druze neighborhood .

Religious leaders of both communities finally succeeded in calming the youths, who were apparently prompted to violence following a rumor that a YouTube clip on the Internet vilified Sheikh Mawfak Tarif, a Druze religious leader, and his late grandfather, Sheikh Amin Tarif.

Tensions had been running high in the town since Saturday night, when Druze and Christian teenagers started fighting among themselves. The fighting turned into a mass brawl, in which nine teenagers were stabbed, and two of them were moderately wounded.

The weekend fighting subsided with the help of religious leaders into a tense, volatile calm in Shfaram for a few days, until violence flared again on Tuesday night with the YouTube rumor.

"We worked for two days to calm things down and in one minute everything exploded," said attorney Nakad Nakad, a Hadash activist in the Druze community.

"Some hooligans on both sides caused this whole commotion. I'm convinced that people from outside caused the conflagration in town. Only last week the people here were united in their response to the [state's] decision to indict 12 townspeople for being involved in killing the terrorist Natan Zada," he said.

Sheikh Tarif, who helped calm the Druze youngsters the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, said neither side was to blame. "The man responsible is someone vile who must be denounced, no matter which community he comes from. We will continue to persuade people to calm down," Tarif said.

Tarif yesterday filed a complaint with the police about the video on the Internet.

"Our message is one of love and reconciliation, that's the way we've been living for decades, but whoever sparked the violence must be punished," said Naif Alian, one of the town's Druze leaders, who visited Christian homes that had been damaged in the riots. He came with the Druze community's Imam Sheikh Yosef Abu Abid and a delegation of religious leaders. .

"We won't allow bloodshed and denounce every act of violence," said Abu Abid.

Ihab Bahout of the Christian community, whose gourmet restaurant was badly damaged, was furious as he picked his way among the ruins. "My restaurant was attacked on Saturday night, and I thought it was over. I replaced the broken windows and didn't imagine it would erupt again. Apparently all that talk about fraternity and unity is just talk and below the surface there's a lot of anger and hatred and frustration. It's the leadership's job to find out what is happening here," he said.

His neighbor, Samir Ayoub, was examining his and his son's cars, which had been damaged in the clashes.

"I saw masked men with sticks breaking windows and someone torched a car nearby. I've lived in Shfaram my entire life and don't remember such violent acts. But you can't say all the Druze are against all the Christians. We have Druze friends who protected their Christian neighbors' homes with their bodies and prevented much greater, perhaps irrevocable, damage," he said.

Some people blamed the police for not taking firm action against rioters and for failing to protect people's property.

Police officers rejected the accusations, saying their forces had risked their lives to protect the residents' safety. Indeed, hardly anyone was hurt, they said.

Galilee Police spokesman Eran Shaked said police were investigating the YouTube clip. "We have a list of suspects from inside and outside the town, and we're looking into it," he said.

Police intend to arrest suspects from outside Shfaram who allegedly took part in the disturbances, he said.

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