Akko: Arabs Set Restaurant, Hotel On Fire, Attack Police Vans, Hurl Stones

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The riots and wreckage in Lod were not an isolated incident of Arab Israeli hooligans acting violently. In many other Arab locales there were similar violent outbreaks of hooliganism, causing damage to public infrastructure and Jewish-owned cars travelling nearby. In one region, the Wadi Ara road which is heavily populated by hostile Israeli Arab elements, police advised people not to pass through at the moment and to use alternative routes to travel.

In the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Akko Arabs attacked a restaurant which for many years had symbolized coexistence in the city – the Uri Buri restaurant patronized by both Jews and Arabs. Patrons ran for cover and later the restaurant was set on fire and gutted.

Israeli model Shai Mika described her ordeal at the restaurant:

“We are in a restaurant in Akko, hiding in the bathrooms, dying from fear,” Mika wrote. “They smashed the window of the restaurant. We’re waiting for people to help us get out of here.”

אורי בורי הוא וואחד סמל של שלום ודו קיום. המסעדה שלו עלתה באש. פורעים ערבים בזזו גם את המלון שלו, כמו מלונות וצימרים אחרים שנפגעו באיזור. לא קל יהיה לשקם את מה שקרה כאן. זו קסם של עיר ומשהו בה נפגע הערב כ"כ. pic.twitter.com/WesLzxZAbk

— יאיר קראוס (@yair_kraus) May 11, 2021

Ori Bori restaurant on fire and people being evacuated from local hotel

Later Mika tried returning to her hotel, the Effendi hotel in the Old City of Akko, but even the hotel was set on fire and its occupants were evacuated by police after being trapped inside. Mika tweeted that “in the last two hours we have gone through the nightmare of our lives. Whoever heard and is worried, I want to update that everything is fine, we’re at a friend’s house, they’re looking after us and we hope to get home safely.”

The owner of the restaurant, Ori Yermias, told Mako that “it’s not nice to see a burnt and charred restaurant. It’s a very harsh feeling. I didn’t believe this could happen in Akko. When I came here I was stunned by what I saw, there is heavy damage.”

Arabs also threw stones at Jewish schoolchildren in Akko, set a police station on fire and pelted police cars with stones.