The situation in Akka (Acre) remains tense since the outbreak of Jewish-Arab violence on the evening of 8 October, the beginning of Yom Kippur. The 14 families, 72 people in total, who lost their homes through attacks by Jewish extremists, remain destitute. Many in this group are too afraid to go back to collect what's left of their belongings, even with the personal assurances of European Parliament's David Hammerstein, who visited Acre on 15 October from Amman, with the assistance of the Mossawa Center.

Mr. Hammerstein and journalists visited some of the damaged and destroyed homes. Three homes have been burned to the ground, leaving those families with nothing. They testified to Mr. Hammerstein that both the police and their Jewish neighbors did nothing to help stop the attacks.

For several of the families, the Yom Kippur violence is only another in a series of anti-Arab aggression directed against them, including one family whose home has been destroyed four times since 2000. In response, the Mossawa Center protested outside the Acre municipality on 16 October.

In line with the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, celebrated this week, several Jewish groups erected a "peace sukkah," or tent, at the entrance to Acre's Old City, which is almost exclusively Arab and has been so far spared from the violence. Both Jewish and Arab community leaders have spoken from the sukkah. On the evening of 15 October, Mr. Hammerstein met with MK David Azouulay, of Shas, to discuss the situation.

Acre remains under intense police presence. Sukkot concludes Monday, immediately followed by Simchat Torah, a time when observant Jews dance in the streets with the Torah, or Old Testament, to celebrate God's giving of it to man. Some fear some of Acre's Jews might try to enter the Old City, which could spark more violence.

Akka Mayor Shimon Lankri, approved during his meeting with Hammerstein and Mossawa staff that serious alerts have been reaching the police that extreme right wing groups planning to use the festival to initiate confrontations with the Arab citizens of the city. He asked the evacuated Arab families to wait until Tuesday before coming back to their houses. During meetings between the city leaders and police commander it was agreed that the celebrations will take place in the main street and not the old city. Special police forces will be located in the city to prevent any escalation.

The Mossawa Center advocate Tamer Masalha requested the Minister of finance to declare that the events in Akka are political confrontations and to compensate all families. According to the Mossawa data more that 30 houses have been damaged, 100 cars and 80 shops have been attacked during the Kippor events. The Mossawa center is calling for direct support to the families that lost their houses. Some of them refuse to go back to live in the Jewish neighborhoods and are looking for housing in the Arab or mixed sided of the city. Hundreds of Arab and Jewish civilians came in the last days to the old part of Akka to show solidarity and to break the boycott campaign against the Arab citizens of the city that have been declared by extreme groups and websites.