Arab home set ablaze during riots
Photo: AFP
Akko riots on Yom Kippur
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Rights group: Recognize Akko Arabs as victims of hostilities
'Violence that erupted in Akko was racially-motivated, and the State must take responsibility, compensate victims,' Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel says in letter to finance minister
Mossawa -The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel – has demanded that the Finance Ministry recognize Arabs whose homes and businesses were damaged during the recent riots in Akko be recognized as victims of hostilities and be compensated accordingly.
Search Continues
Police continue to search for suspects involved in clashes between Jews, Arabs in northern city. Seventy-eight inhabitants detained since riots' onset on Yom Kippur, four indictments filed
"(The violence that erupted) in Akko was racially-motivated, and the State must take responsibility," Mossawa Director Jafar Farah said.
According to the organization, during the clashes that broke out in the northern city after an Arab motorist entered a predominantly Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur some 100 vehicles, 80 shops and 30 homes owned by Arabs were damaged, this in addition to five homes that were completely burned down.
In a letter addressed to Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Mossawa noted that following the attack carried out by Jewish terrorist Eden Natan Zada aboard a bus in the Arab-Israeli town of Shfaram in 2005, the Victims of Hostilities Law of 1970 was expanded to include cases in which property was damaged during incidents involving racially-motivated clashes between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
"This was precisely the case in Akko, and therefore the finance minister must immediately demand that the Knesset's Finance Committee recognize the (Akko riots) as acts of hostility," said Farah.
On Thursday representatives of the Mossawa Center met with Akko Mayor Shimon Lankry, who said he would act to ensure that the city's Arab's be recognized as victims of hostilities.
He said that should the State refuse to recognize the Arabs as victims of hostilities they would have to file private damage claims, which he said would only widen the existing rift between the Jewish and Arab communities in the city.
"A price must be paid for what happened," Lankry told the representatives, "the families who suffered must be taken care of and we must rebuild the trust between Jews and Arabs."
