Oct 12, 2008, 23:04 GMT
Jerusalem - Israeli police have been ordered to show 'zero tolerance' toward rioters in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Acre, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday, after recent violence between the two communities in the northern coastal city.
On Sunday, as unrest in Acre entered its fifth day, police patrolled the city in large numbers but were unable to prevent an Arab-owned home from being torched Saturday night or a Jewish-owned car from being set ablaze early Sunday.
By Sunday, some 54 people had been arrested in the intermittent rioting.
'Acre has excelled as an example of mixed Arab-Jewish life for many years, but now there is a feeling that a large group of the city's residents are becoming hostage to extremists from both sides, Jewish extremists and Arab extremists, and the result is violence,' Olmert told ministers at Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The premier later met with Arab leaders in Israel.
'There is no doubt that over the years, there has been discrimination against the Arab population, stemming from many reasons. It seems incorrect and unjust,' Olmert said, according to a statement released by his office.
Olmert, who has resigned his post and currently serves as interim prime minister, said he tried to correct this during his time in office and and stressed the need for dialogue.
Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres announced that he would visit Acre on Monday to meet with Jewish and Arab leaders.
'Nobody gains from these riots,' said Peres, a Nobel peace laureate.
The Arab-Jewish clashes in the city broke out around midnight Wednesday on the eve of the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, or Day of Atonement. It is the holiest and most solemn day on the Hebrew calender, when Israel comes to an almost total standstill.
An Arab resident drove his car through a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, allegedly playing loud music in a provocation. Local Jews saw this as a desecration of the holiday and threw stones at the car, its driver and his 18-year-old son.
Responding to a spreading rumour that Jews had attacked or even killed an Arab and to calls over mosque loudspeakers to react, hundreds of Arab residents streamed toward the neighbourhood, wreaking havoc while passing through the town's mainly Jewish pedestrian shopping street.
The following night, dozens of Jewish residents in turn gathered at the entrance to the town's Arab neighbourhoods as the Yom Kippur holiday ended after sunset Thursday. They were blocked by police, who prevented the crowd from storming the Arab neighbourhoods. Youths from both sides hurled rocks during the clashes.
Witnesses said the Arab rioters shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) and 'Death to the Jews,' while the Jewish rioters yelled 'Death to the Arabs.'
Community leaders appealed for calm, and on Saturday night representatives of the Jewish and Arab communities met to devise a plan to restore peace.
Tawfiq Jamal, the driver who sparked the rioting, told the Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee on Sunday that he had made a mistake, the Ynet news site reported.
He rejected accusations that he had been drunk and had been listening to music in his car.
'All I wanted was to get home. A mistake happened. I want to ask for forgiveness. I underwent a difficult experience and was mistakenly made into a murderer and a fascist,' Ynet quoted him as saying.
The Acre municipality, meanwhile cancelled a theatre festival scheduled for the coming week.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak decried the cancellation, telling his Labour Party faction Sunday that 'the rioters must not be allowed to harm the fabric of life in the city and country.'
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