Date: November 5, 2008
Speaker: Dr. Mordechai Kedar
In this briefing at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Dr. Mordechai Kedar explores the effects that radical Islamic groups have had on Arab-Israeli relations, with the Akko Riots as a case study. He explains how in the mixed city of Acre in October 2008, a car driven by an Arab went into a Jewish neighborhood on the night of Yom Kippur. This triggered five days of violence, demonstrations, breaking into shops, and burning apartments and houses.
At the time of the riots, Islamic Jihad and Hamas called on the Arabs in Israel to do the same thing in all the other mixed cities like Jaffa, Ramla and Lod. They tried to inflame the whole situation, but it didn’t work. The calls to spread the riots to other places in Israel were not answered. Why didn’t the riots spread to other cities? Because at the end of the day, both Jews and Arabs realize that coexistence is better than fighting.
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