Two Arab citizens of Israel from Akko were sentenced to time in prison Wednesday for setting fire to a local yeshiva in an attack motivated by Arab nationalism. A third man was sentenced to community service.
Ibrahim Biumy, 30, was convicted of setting fire to the office of the “Ruach Tzfonit” yeshiva, and of several other crimes, including attacking a police officer. He was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. Salah Titi, 21, was sentenced to 2.5 years' jail time.
Biumy and Titi were each ordered to pay the yeshiva NIS 40,000 compensation.
The third defendant, 21-year-old Khaled Shaaban, was convicted of assisting in the attack, but did not take part in actually burning the yeshiva. He was sentenced to community service.
Shaaban received a lighter sentence than the others in part due to his participation in Jewish-Arab coexistence groups prior to the attack, and his apology in court for the arson.
Biumy, Titi and Shaaban admitted to the attack, which they said was motivated by the Jewish counterattacks on Arabs during the Yom Kippur riots in Akko. Haifa District Court justice Judge Ilan Shiff mentioned the claimed motive in his verdict, telling the three that even if Arabs were hurt during the riots, that was no excuse for hurting others.
Shiff also mentioned the potential ramifications of the act, saying that Jews who damage Arab institutions or Arabs who damage Jewish institutions risk sparking a riot in which both Jews and Arabs will suffer.
The attack on the Ruach Tzfonit yeshiva took place a short time after the Yom Kippur riots in Akko. The riots began when an Arab drove into a Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur evening, with his stereo blaring Arabic music. A confrontation with Jews followed, and a short time later several busloads of axe-wielding Arabs arrived in the Jewish neighborhood and went on a rampage for several hours, smashing the windows of about 100 cars and shouting "slaughter the Jews." Residents said that the Arabs had obviously been organized ahead of time and that police were nowhere to be seen for hours.
Jews fought back, burning some Arab apartments, and the resulting riots lasted for several days, spreading to other mixed Arab-Jewish cities in the north.
In the wake of the Akko riots, a second arson attack was reported in Lod, where two Arab teens have been charged with of burning down a 60-year-old synagogue.
Arabs in Akko plan to hold a rally this weekend to commemorate the "disaster" of the founding of the State of Israel.