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ACRE, Israel - Jews and Arabs clashed for a fourth consecutive night Saturday in the northern Israeli city of Acre leaving at least three people injured in hospital, radio reports said.
Three Jewish demonstrators were also arrested in the town where riots erupted late on Wednesday night on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Israeli public radio said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that more than 700 officers remained on patrol in the coastal city of 50,000 people to try and keep a lid on the violence.
Police said the clashes broke out when an Arab resident drove through a conservative Jewish neighbourhood blaring music from his car stereo.
A group of Jewish youths assaulted the driver, accusing him of deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur, when most Jews in Israel observe a religious ban on driving.
Hundreds of Arabs took to the streets shortly afterwards, damaging around 100 cars and 40 shops, according to the police.
In the ensuing days Jewish and Arab rioters clashed with each other and with police. Two protesters and a police officer have been slightly wounded and 25 people arrested since the violence broke out.
On Friday, Israeli leaders called for calm from both sides although hardline Jewish and Arab lawmakers traded accusations of blame for the violence.
On Saturday, Arab lawmaker Abbas Zakur blamed the driver for the violence.
"We, the Arabs of Acre, blame the driver who took his car out on the night of Yom Kippur. He should have done everything possible to go home without his car in the mainly Jewish area," he said after talks with fellow Arab leaders.
Arabs with Israeli citizenship, the descendants of those who remained in the Jewish state after the 1948 war that followed its creation, make up around 20 percent of the Israeli population.
- AFP /ls
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