NIF Weighs In on Akko Riots

October 28, 2008

The violent confrontations between the Jewish and Arab communities of Akko have highlighted the need for measures which will enhance coexistence. Clashes began after an Arab driver was attacked for driving through a Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur and escalated into several days of civic unrest.

NIF and SHATIL mobilized immediately . Buthayna Dabit, the head of NIF/SHATIL's Mixed Cities Project, led a solidarity delegation of Jews and Arabs to the city during Sukkot.

"The vast majority of Jews and Arabs told us they want the situation to get back to normal as quickly as possible," she said. "They told us that the moderate voices must prevail. We have set up a series of dialogues with grassroots leaders of influence in the Jewish and Arab communities under the heading a Strong and Sane Voice." 

In the wake of the rioting, NIF Israel Executive Director Eliezer Yaari and SHATIL Director Rachel Liel wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. They explained the aims of NIF/SHATIL’s Mixed Cities project, which launched five years ago and has promoted joint living and the rights of the 90,000 Arab Israeli residents in Israel’s five mixed Arab-Jewish cities – Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Haifa and Akko.

Jews and Arabs clashed in the streets of Akko earlier this month.

Yaari and Liel wrote, “We call upon the government which you head to immediately adopt the (NIF/SHATIL) Project to Strengthen Joint Living in the Mixed Cities and to turn this into a national project. We believe that this project will help to establish in the mixed cities a joint Jewish-Arab community that will live in equality and mutual respect."

The letter received an immediate response saying that it was a worthy suggestion that is being seriously considered.

Following the internecine clashes, NIF reached out to the Israeli and international media to provide background on the mixed city issues.  NIF leaders and field activists were widely interviewed regarding the significance of the events and what must be done to put matters right. Eliezer Yaari, interviewed by the Toronto Star, stressed that the economic hardship suffered by Jews and Arabs, who tend to live together in some of the country’s poorest neighborhoods, exacerbates the ethnic differences. Read the article here.

Since its establishment in 2003, the Mixed Cities Project has worked to promote equal rights in housing, infrastructure and planning in order to advance social justice. The project has succeeded in freezing dozens of home demolition orders, and set up neighborhood residential forums for promoting housing and education rights. Public activities for preserving the old cities of Akko, Lod and Ramle have also been initiated, while garbage collection and bus lines have been inaugurated in unrecognized neighborhoods and much more. The project often draws national attention and last year, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot chose Dabit as one of the five people most influential people in the Ramle-Lod region.