Israel's Rodney King

Israel has its own version of Rodney King. Remember him? King was the black construction worker in Los Angeles whose savage beating by four cops in 1991 led to race riots. While L.A. was engulfed in flames, King got on the TV and famously declared: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” (King was later arrested because he ran over a vice cop who tried to bust him with a transvestite hooker, but, hey, that's L.A., and that's another story…)

Fast forward to last week's riots between Jews and Israeli-Arabs in the coastal city of Acre. It all started when an Israeli-Arab, Tawfik Jamal, drove through Acre on the night of Yom Kippur to pick up his daughter. Not a good idea; people are discouraged from driving on this Jewish holy day in Israel. Jewish youths say that he was driving “provocatively”, that he was drunk and blasting music from his car, all of which Jamal denies.

His car was smashed by the mob, and Jamal and his son were forced to run and hide. An Israeli-Arab witnessed this and sounded the alarm; over Acre's mosque loudspeakers a warning crackled that an Arab and his son were in danger and needed rescuing. This turned into four days of riots and looting between Jews and Israeli-Arabs, who comprise 30 per cent of this city's population. Arab-Israelis are entitled to full legal rights as citizens, even though they often face prejudice, suspicion and are denied equal opportunities.

On Sunday, Jamal hitched a ride (his own car was destroyed by the mob) to Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem. There, with a toothy, shame-faced smile, he apologized, saying: "If what I did caused this, I am ready to sacrifice my neck right here on this table, on lowered gallows, just to return peace and quiet back to the city of Acre, to bring co-existence back to its place."

Soothing words. Only Acre's mayor, who faces re-election and needs the Jewish vote, didn't think so. On Monday, Jamal was arrested for “reckless endangerment, speeding and harming religious sensitivities.” This was later reduced to house arrest. Some jurists pointed out that the charge of “harming religious sensitivities” would never stick. After all, the only thing, and a stupid thing it was, that Jamal did was drive his car on Yom Kippur, which is something that plenty of secular Jews do too, without getting tossed in jail.

Lots of political leaders made the pilgrimage to Acre. Some tried to calm tensions, others went to fan communal flames which, in Acre, is easy to do. Poverty is dire, with Russian and Ethiopian immigrants and Israeli-Arabs all elbowing each other for a few badly paid jobs. But instead of locking up Jamal on ridiculous charges of "harming religious sensitivities" (last time I checked in Israel, being a bone-head isn't a crime), they should have him out in Acre's battered neighborhoods, giving Jews and Arabs his rendition of Rodney King's “Can we all just get along?”

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem