Some residents reported power was cut in their homes and petrol bombs were thrown through their windows, Channel 12 news said, and police acknowledged having to escort some residents from a community center to their homes as Arab mobs marauded in the streets. A local man, 56, was seriously hurt when hit by a slab in his car, and was hospitalized. Another local resident was seriously hurt.
The mayor, Yair Revivo, said City Hall and a local museum were also attacked, and compared the situation to the Nazis’ 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. “Civil war” is breaking out, he said, lamenting that decades of coexistence efforts had collapsed.
After he appealed directly to Prime Minister for urgent help, a state of emergency was declared in the mixed Jewish-Arab city for the first time in decades, and large Border Police forces deployed to work to restore order. “Prime Minister Netanyahu directed that lawbreakers be dealt with severely and that units on the ground be reinforced in order to restore quiet and order to the city forthwith,” a government statement said.
National Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai called the situation unprecedented. “We are seeing a situation in the mixed (Jewish Arab) cities that we have never seen before, including the incidents of October 2000,” Shabtai said. (Widespread rioting broke out among Arab Israelis in October 2000 at the start of the second Intifada.)
Arab violence erupted in numerous other cities across Israel, and there were also reports of Jewish revenge attacks, including in Lod, where a Muslim cemetery was set ablaze.
Attacks were reported on Jewish homes in Ramle, where cars were also stoned. In Acre, a restaurant and a hotel were set ablaze. Roads were blocked in Umm al-Fahm. There were confrontations reported after midnight in Jaffa, where a car was overturned and set alight, and even minor fights reported in Tel Aviv’s Habimah Square.
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