Police clashed with Jewish protesters in Acre on Friday on the third day of violence between Arabs and Jews as Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled to the northern Israeli city to appeal for calm.
Police fired a water cannon at a crowd of about 200 people as some demonstrators hurled bottles and stones at security forces.
Chanting “death to Arabs,” the protesters were headed from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood to the house of an Arab when police intervened.
The incident occurred hours after Livni, who is trying to form a new government and replace outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, issued in Acre what she said was “a message of reconciliation and cooperation to calm tempers within the population.”
Police deployed an additional 500 officers to help the 200-strong local force after violence broke out on Wednesday night as Jews observed Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement.
“We have also raised our level of alert throughout the country so that similar incidents do not occur again in Acre, or elsewhere,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
By Friday evening, Acre was quiet again.
“Calm was restored to the city in the evening,” police commander Shimon Korn said on TV.
Israeli President Shimon Peres had earlier appealed for calm.
“Jews and Arabs must stop immediately this violence which will not benefit anyone,” he said.
Two protesters and a police officer have been lightly wounded. Twelve people — Arabs and Jews — have been arrested since the first clashes, Rosenfeld said.
About 100 cars and 40 stores were damaged by Arab demonstrators, he said.
Rosenfeld said the initial unrest erupted when an Arab motorist drove into a neighborhood where Arabs and Jews live, playing his car stereo loudly.
Several Jewish youths assaulted the driver, accusing him of deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur.
“Rumors then spread out, namely from mosques, claiming that the motorist had been killed, prompting several hundred Arabs to take to the streets,” Rosenfeld said.
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