The Arab driver, Yom Kippur and how a city was inflamed

It began with an Israeli Arab motorist driving into a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood during the solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. It developed into the most serious clashes between Israeli Arabs and Jews for eight years.

Israeli-Arab parliamentarians warned yesterday that the arrest of the motorist, Tawfik Jamal, could undermine efforts to draw a line under four days of rioting that have threatened to break the delicate balance of community relations in this ancient and ethnically mixed port city.

The riots started a week ago, after Mr Jamal drove into the predominantly Jewish eastern district of the city of Acre on the one day of the year when Israeli Jews refrain – by custom and not by law – from using their cars. Mr Jamal was pursued and surrounded by a stone-throwing crowd of angry residents and his son was slightly injured.

As rumours spread that Mr Jamal had been killed, Jewish residents say that hundreds of Arabs – many masked – then marched on the area, breaking the windows of Jewish shops, attacking parked cars, and throwing stones at their homes. In the subsequent three nights of violence, in which 64 people were arrested, Jewish rioters attacked and burned the homes of several Arab residents, who had fled. On Sunday, Major General Shimon Koren, northern commander of the police, said that Jewish instigators appeared to be the "dominant elements" behind the continued rioting.

A massive police presence helped to prevent further outbreaks on Sunday and Monday. Police have responded with restraint in Acre after being criticised in the Or Commission inquiry into rioting elsewhere in 2000, during which they killed 13 Arab demonstrators. Yossi Beilin, of the left-wing Meretz Party, said "nothing has been done" to implement Or recommendations on the social and economic discrimination, which some community leaders claim have again been exposed by the latest clashes.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Ahmed, 54, who has long lived in good relations with his Jewish neighbours in a part of the eastern neighbourhood well away from the original trouble, described how his wife, Berta, had left the house on Friday with her two children after hearing that Arab homes were being attacked. Mr Ahmed, a construction worker who has a broken leg, refused to leave with her. He said he was watching television at about 11.45pm when a Molotov cocktail was hurled at his window. "I went to put the fire out and I shouted down to them: 'What has happened? I have lived here for 25 years and I have never done anything to you.'"

Mr Ahmed, whose family say they had remained quietly at home during Yom Kippur out of respect for their Jewish neighbours, called the police less than an hour later after realising that an angry crowd had gathered outside his house. The police arrived 45 minutes later and frogmarched him out of the house, for his own safety. The mob then looted and set fire to his house.

Reflecting the mixed emotions prevalent in Acre this week, Mrs Ahmed, by now in a hostel outside the city, said she had heard about the fire – which was eventually put out by firefighters – when a Jewish neighbour "rang me on my mobile to tell me because she was concerned about me when she saw what was happening She thought I was still in the house." Asked if she wanted to go back to live in the same mainly Jewish district, she said: "Yes. Loudly yes. I am not blaming everyone for what one person has done."

Mr Ahmed's daughter, Kahraman, said Jewish friends had attended her wedding but acknowledged that the city has not been free of friction in recent years. "You could feel they were afraid of us because we were Arabs," she said.

Ofer Roth, 44, a Jewish caterer, said there had been minor incidents among otherwise "pretty good" relations "There were tensions but we could deal with it."

Jewish residents insisted that Mr Jamal had been driving fast through the area on Wednesday night with windows open and music playing – which Mr Jamal denies. Referring to the subsequent Arab march on the district, Shimon Lasmi, 48, said: "You build your life, you build your house and then one special day of the year someone comes and breaks what you have built. How do you expect people to react?"

But Arab Knesset members claimed yesterday that Mr Jamal's arrest six days after the incident on charges including "offence against religion" was a baseless attempt to appease Jewish extremists. One, Abas Zkoor, who this week promoted a conciliatory statement condemning Mr Jamal's foray, said: "Throughout these days we have been halting the Arab side, talking and making peace," he said. "But now I fear the arrest is beyond our powers."

The mayor, Shimon Lankri, who is standing for re-election next month, has already cancelled this year's annual theatre festival,which would have brought thousands of visitors to Acre's Old city, mainly benefiting Arab businesses. Mr Roth said: "After the riots in 2000, the Arab leaders told the extremists 'don't do anything like this again because it hurts us'. I believe that's what will happen now."

Acre Israel's new flashpoint

* Located in what is now northern Israel's Western Galilee area, Acre is one of the Middle East's oldest inhabited cities, dating from the 1500s BC. Originally a key port which still boasts rich Roman, Crusader, Mameluke and Ottoman remains, the Old City is a Unesco world heritage site.

* In more recent times, the citadel housed a famous prison used to hold Jewish

underground detainees during the British Mandate

* Acre (Hebrew name Akko) was captured by Israeli forces in May 1948 after most inhabitants had fled. The remaining Arab population was warned it would be destroyed "to last man" if it did not surrender.

* About a third of the city's 45,000 population are Arab. But only about an estimated 15 per cent belong to families who lived therebefore 1948.

* Most Arabs live in and around the Old City.