Acre (Israel): Jewish protesters torched two houses belonging to Arab families in the northern Israeli town of Acre overnight after three days of violent clashes, Israeli public radio reported today.
Over 700 police, meanwhile, patrolled the coastal town of 50,000 people, a police commander told public radio, after riots erupted three days earlier on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Israeli police said the clashes broke out when an Arab resident drove through a conservative Jewish neighbourhood blaring music from his car stereo.
A group of Jewish youths assaulted the driver, accusing him of deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur, when most Jews in Israel observe a religious ban on driving.
Hundreds of Arabs took to the streets shortly afterwards, damaging around 100 cars and 40 shops, according to the police.
In following days Jewish and Arab rioters clashed with each other and with police. Two protesters and a police officer have been slightly wounded and around 30 people arrested since the violence broke out.
Arab MP Abbas Zakur on Saturday blamed the driver for the violence. "We, the Arabs of Acre, blame the driver who took his car out on the night of Yom Kippur. He should have done everything possible to go home without his car in the mainly Jewish area," he said after talks with fellow Arab leaders.
Yesterday, Israeli leaders called for calm from both sides although hardline Jewish and Arab lawmakers traded accusations of blame for the violence.
