By Jack Khoury
Police on Tuesday arrested five Druze men on suspicion of involvement in violent weekend clashes between Druze and Christians in the mixed village of Maghar in the Galilee.
Leaders of the Catholic community in Israel said Monday that Israel has abandoned its responsibility for the security of members of their community.
In a tough letter sent to President Moshe Katzav, Archbishop Michel Sabah and Catholic leaders in Israel placed the responsibility for their security on Israel's security forces.
In an interview with Haaretz, Sabah said that while Israel stationed an entire army to guard a tiny group of settlers in Hebron, an entire neighborhood in Maghar was almost destroyed without any reaction from the police.
Earlier on Monday, police said a 16-year-old Druze boy admitted to spreading a rumor that sparked the violence, a charge the teen later denied.
Dozens of Christian businesses were burned to the ground, and many Christian families fled the village during riots that began Thursday evening after a rumor spread that Christian youths had placed pornographic pictures of Druze girls on the internet.
After an extensive investigation that included experts on computer-related crimes, police determined the youth had lied to his friends about the pictures after he was angered by derogatory marks about Druze made by an unidentified man with whom he had corresponded by e-mail.
However, the teen said Monday that police were searching for a scapegoat and wrongly blamed him in an attempt to solve the problems in the village.
"Everything the police said is simply a lie," he said, adding that he has many Christian friends.
The youth's attorney, Zayed Salah, blamed the police for allowing the situation to get out of control.
"Last Monday the police had already received a complaint from the school principal regarding the story about the pictures, but didn't deal with it appropriately and waited until the rumor took off," Salah said. "I regret that the police are trying to solve all the problems of Maghar [by placing them] on the young shoulders of [my client]."
Police have seized the computers of four people who claimed to have either seen or received the pictures. An inspection revealed that the pictures were never on the computers.
The youth was held for questioning in connection with spreading false information, and police are continuing the investigation with the objective of locating additional suspects.
Police finished questioning the youth Sunday afternoon, but preferred not to make the information public due to fears of additional riots. A Northern Valleys District spokesman said the information was passed on to both Druze and Christian community leaders.
On Sunday night a large crowd of Druze gathered in the village due to a rumor that a large number of Christians were gathering in the village and the surrounding area. The Druze crowd was dispersed by community leaders.
A large police force remained in the village yesterday in order to prevent further outbreaks of violence.
The violent clashes peaked Saturday afternoon when eight residents of the village were injured, two moderately and the rest lightly. Three police officers were also lightly injured Saturday, including Northern Valleys District commander Yaakov Zigdon, who sustained a leg injury.
Northern District commander Dan Ronen called the violence "a pogrom."
......................
Jerusalem - Sectarian clashes erupted between Christians and Druze in the Israeli Arab village of Maghar for a second straight day on Saturday, wounding 10, including three policemen, residents said. Police intervened to quell the violence which was sparked by rumours that photographs of naked Druze women had been posted on the internet.
Two of the seven wounded villagers suffered bullet wounds.
Saturday's unrest broke out after Christians held a silent protest outside the village church against what they charged was police inaction during a rampage by hundreds of Druze youths on Friday in which Christian cars and businesses were attacked.
Regional police chief Dan Ronen acknowledged that the Christians had a point, charging that the Druze violence had amounted to a "pogrom", a strong word in an Israeli context given its original use to describe sectarian attacks on East European Jewish communities.
"I'm ashamed for the Druze community," said Ronen. "It's deplorable that a pogrom should have broken out because of rumours about pictures of naked Druze women being posted on the internet."
Police deployed in strength on Saturday and said they had no evidence to support the Druze allegations of improper photographs.
Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra visited the village and said: "These are the worst sectarian riots I have ever seen in the Israeli Arab community."
A breakaway sect of Shiite Islam, the 80 000 Druze are normally considered the most loyal of Israel's Arab communities and, unlike the Christians, do military service in the army.
A separate Druze community lives in the Golan Heights, where they have remained loyal to Syria, despite Israel's 38-year occupation of the territory.
In all, Israel counts some 1.2 million Arabs, of whom some nine percent are Christian.