Ik heb weleens eerder geschreven dat ik het soms nog een wonder vind dat rellen zoals in Akko niet vaker plaatsvinden. Ook in Nederland en in extremere mate in Frankrijk zijn er de afgelopen jaren heftige rellen geweest. Israel is armer, en Joden en Arabieren zijn daar al meer dan 60 jaar in een strijd om het land verwikkeld, waardoor de vijandbeelden en wederzijdse angsten veel sterker zijn. Religieuze, nationalistische en culturele sentimenten lopen door elkaar heen.
De armoede bestrijden (onder beide bevolkingsgroepen) en de discriminatie van Arabische inwoners van Israel tegengaan zijn noodzakelijke, maar waarschijnlijk niet voldoende maatregelen om dit soort rellen (en erger) te voorkomen. Daarvoor moeten de wederzijdse vooroordelen en vijandbeelden worden afgebouwd, er een einde komen aan de antisemitische propaganda in de Arabische wereld, en het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict worden opgelost.
RP
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| 'Acre could be just the beginning,' fear mixed-city mayors | |||
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| By Yoav Stern | |||
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Jews and Arabs in mixed cities on Saturday warned that riots similar to the ones that erupted in Acre over Yom Kippur could take place in cities like Lod, Ramle and Jaffa, each of which has a combination of underprivileged Jewish and Arab communities. Community activists in Lod said over the weekend that they feared clashes between the Jewish and Arab communities. "I don't know if it will happen in a day, two days or two months but it's certainly a possibility," said Bothaina Debit, a community activist in Lod. That city's Arab community, she said, is suffering from socio-economic distress that it will have trouble sustaining for much longer.
Rumors spread among the Arab public Saturday that right-wing Jewish groups were acting with evacuees from Gush Katif to settle in mixed cities. Consequently a minor incident could spark a huge riot. "We're not talking about an idyllic coexistence. The situation is explosive, things could be much worse than the Acre riots," Aviv Wasserman, director of the Lod Foundation, told Haaretz Saturday. The Acre riots should be a warning signal to all those involved, according to Wasserman. "Too many people are sitting on the fence. This is the time to act - for both government and social organizations. We must invest in the mixed cities," he said. The Arab MKs in the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee decided not to convene their umbrella organization to discuss the Acre events, in the hope that postponing a meeting would help things calm down in the city. Similarly, a number of them said they would not visit Acre now, out of fear that their presence would provoke similar visits from radical right-wing MKs. Arab leaders Saturday dismissed Hamas and Islamic Jihad calls over the weekend to renew the confrontation with Israel. The organizations said there was no diffference between Acre and Gaza, or Jerusalem and Ramallah. MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List) told the Abu Dhabi television network Saturday that he rejected calls to open a third intifada following the Acre events. "These calls are harmful. We'll defend ourselves against racism in public and political ways, and not opt for an intifada," Tibi said. | |||
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