"I was not supposed to be here at all, you are talking to a hologram," smiles Shimon Lankri, the mayor of Acre. He suffered injuries during his military service as an officer in the Golani and survived an assassination attempt in 2013, in an incident where the lead bullets fired at his body were supposed to end his way in this world. He does not like to talk about injuries because he claims that it "can give ideas to those who do not like me or think it conveys weakness, but on the contrary - those who wanted to hurt me got me back stronger".
Just before the age of 60, Lankry continues to gallop. Even if the body is already giving its signals, the plans are still multiple for his Acre. Lankry ran at the top of an independent list and won the local elections in 2003 by a narrow margin ("For the residents I was considered someone who came from outside, but I shattered paradigms that characterized this place at the time when it came to Arab-Jewish relations"). For the second time, in the 2008 election, he won about 70 percent of the vote. In the 2013 election, he won 80 percent of the vote and, like many of his friends in the northern sector, became the undisputed sheriff of the port city. In the 2018 election, Lankri was elected for a fourth term after winning 85 percent of the vote. He has two more years left, after which he will decide whether to continue in the local political framework or immerse himself in the murky waters of national politics.
Acre is defined by him as "the enterprise of my life" and "the passion that makes me continue to get up every morning and work even in difficult moments," but the riots that broke out in the city four months ago moved something in the mayor's mind, "that pessimism is not an option."
On May 11, 2021, Arabs in Acre set fire to the fish restaurant "Uri Buri" and the "Efendi" hotel.
Avi Har-Even, a senior official at IAI, who was injured in the arson and died of his wounds three weeks later, was staying at the hotel.
The next day, Arab rioters lynched three Jewish civilians and fatally wounded one of them.
The incidents were also accompanied by looting and arson by the local police station.
"I got a knife to the heart"
Lankry talks about the subject as someone who knows that whatever he says, he will not be able to explain what happened.
Perhaps because he himself does not find a convincing explanation for this.
From a brief acquaintance with you, I feel that your personal assassination attempt hurt you less than the attempted assassination attempt in Acre last May.
"Definitely like that, it's accurate. So it was something personal against me, and this time it was something against the common vision of this city. For me, the residents did not stab me in the back, but I received a knife directly to the heart."
You did not see it coming.
"If you told me a minute before these riots were about to break out - I would not believe you. Yes, we had riots in 2008, where both sides of the city were involved in violence, but since then Acre has changed: look at the infrastructure, look at the promenade, look What do all the children get here in all areas of the city? And suddenly this event came, which combined religion, nationalism and delinquency, and you see that not only we did not see it coming, but also the Israel Police. The police force that handled the events here was small. It was clear what was happening, then it was already clear that serious reinforcements were needed here. A police station and a theater were burned here. The police and the GSS did not see the intensity of what was happening. And as for criminality, businesses of Jews who did not pay sponsorship fees were burned and ridden here on the nationalist wave. It is worth checking with the Jews which businesses were burned or which were not. "
When they tried to eliminate you an advance warning that you were being followed and the police did not take it seriously. During the riots in Acre, you said that more police forces were needed - and they did not listen to you either.
"I'm unfortunately a pioneer, and the one who pays the price of being first in something (laughs). My assassination attempt made history, after which they changed the way threats to mayors are handled and the way they are secured. But the main problem is that our police are size and way of thinking. "A country of four million people, when in fact we are already more than double that. There is not enough manpower - not only in Acre but everywhere, and we see the level of personal security of the citizens. I talk about it everywhere and feel there is understanding, but things do not move." .
Understands Tel Aviv
The truth pats the sweaty face of the end of August, when you reach the beautiful promenade on the old side of the city.
The beaches are overseas, but the colorful restaurants, market and alleys are empty of people.
Local tourists who are supposed to come from all over the country to the northern pearl, have been keeping their feet off since the May events.
Even if the hotels and B & Bs in the area are already full ahead of the holidays, it is difficult to absorb optimism throughout the city.
Foreign tourism was eliminated by the Corona, and domestic tourism was eliminated by the riots.
Lankri does not deny that this is the case: "Now, four months later, the Israeli public is evacuating and ready to return to Acre. The Israelis know how to overcome quickly, but this time it may take a little longer. Two days after the riots ended, life is back here. "In the face of disappointment, one must respond in practice: to sit down again, Jews and Arabs, and get life in Acre back on track, I know of no other way. On the other hand, I can understand a Tel Avivian who asks himself if he wants to come to Acre, and decides not to."
You went to meet the Imam of Acre, you are sitting with educators, your deputy is an Arab and you can not guarantee that the next riots will not occur, maybe even the opposite - they are only a matter of time.
"Now I can not commit to anything after what happened, it's true but I also do not sit and raise my hands but continue to work together with everyone so that next time they understand that it is in their interest. Running a city in Israel is difficult. Running a city in the periphery is a little harder, and managing A city mixed in the periphery is already a challenge at a very high level of difficulty. "
From the outside, Acre looked like a resolved city. Arab and Jewish neighbors live in the same building, along with growth and a lot of tourism, and here everything is back.
"In the end only a small part of the residents took part in the riots. I do not underestimate this for a moment, but still live here in partnership and will live here in partnership because no one has another choice, certainly not in the city I run. I can tell you that for me Acre is a 'mazino line' Of Arab-Jewish relations in Israel - and not just in mixed cities. If Acre falls and coexistence loses, there will not be a single place in Israel that will not have the same problem. ".
You are fighting for Acre to return to being a home for those who were born in it and fled to Nahariya and the surrounding area. How much do you think what happened in the city will hurt her?
"The city has already moved forward. I have approved high construction only on the outskirts of the city for housing developers and people who want to return to live in the city where they were born, and the fact that everything that goes on the market is sold, and everything is sold. Sometimes I look at the contractors So much construction, and here it is, a fact that it is difficult to get apartments. "
Lankry likes to throw sums into the car space we drive.
The cost of the extreme park, the price of the football field of the sub-league football team, and also how much the beautiful conservatory cost.
The highlight of the tens of millions invested in the city is the new cultural hall in the city, without a doubt the most impressive modern building I have encountered in recent years in the Israeli periphery.
Lankry insists on working less with the government when it comes to fundraising and usually gets the minimum.
He knows how to bring in the rest of the money from sponsors, donors and large commercial entities.
He advocates social change that he claims will come through sports and culture.
"If I give children tools to dream, I'm basically telling them that the sky is the limit. Arabs, Jews, new immigrants from former Soviet Union countries - everyone gets the same thing.
Every child in Acre should be in a class and I take care of that personally.
If the piano in a hall in Rishon Lezion costs NIS 950,000, then the children in Acre will learn about the same piano, because they should not feel different from children elsewhere. "
Photo: Ginny Agency,
Transmit strength
The "Acre International Festival for a Different Theater", a cultural event and a great symbol of the city, one that makes it a tourist attraction every Sukkot, will open on September 24-21.
Two years ago, they dealt with the provocative content of some of the plays here, a year ago, the Corona was hit even harder and the plays were zoomed out.
This year the Corona concern was accompanied by concern about the situation in the city.
As we walk into the festival area, the smell of fire blowing from the Acre Theater, which was also hit by riots, is still noticeable, even if the agile renovation has restored it to its former state.
The mass outdoor events, along with the impressive repertoire of performances, cause all those involved to develop for the first time a kind of optimism, that the success of the festival will actually be the stamp that prepares the return to routine in the city. Lankri understands the symbolism of the festival's success precisely in the place that served as a center of disruption: "Acre is also known for this festival. He will not be arrested and will not be arrested as long as things are up to me." A massive increase in tourists from all over Israel will mark a kind of small victory over the corona, but before that - a victory over the real great danger of Israeli society: giving legitimacy to hatred and language forever.
When we have lunch together, Lankry already allows himself to sail in personal stories.
Wherever we walked around the city one could discover for ourselves the secret of the success of one who tries to carry on his back a city that insists on presenting a different picture of the periphery, even if everyone here admits that "once Haifa is weak, the whole north weakens," as a political allusion to big sister.
In a city half of which is Likud and in other parts there are those who do not know the State of Israel, Lankri, a right-wing man ("by no means a leftist"), knows how to show us where Gideon Saar and Geula Even's apartment is located.
And it is enough to be wise in Ramiza.
With the food already in his stomach, Lankri suddenly bursts into his "I believe": "I apply in Acre what I learned at home, and that practice is the best way to deal with difficulties. My father immigrated from Morocco and was sent to a kibbutz, and from there he got this thing that everything in life is Discipline and education. "
His authoritative voice changes octave and nuance suddenly: "I would go to my grandmother every night to be with her because I am the eldest of eight children, and I was already 9. Then at five-thirty in the morning I got up to pray and from there I went to sweep streets. I did not see it as a sign of distress. "Shelly kept us short, and I realized that from the housing I grew up in - forged children emerge. I do not connect to the discourse on the first and second Israel. Whoever learns, succeeds. Whoever imposes responsibility on other people or an ethnic matter, removes responsibility from himself."
We break up and I board the train back to the center. "Look, we lived here. A building where half the apartments belonged to Arabs and half to Jews. Who changed then, who is a Muslim and who is a Jew? I always wanted the children of Acre to radiate strength and I always look for the sign that transmits strength. I was not taught chess, but I saw children From a high socio-economic background, chess is played, so I said that the children in Acre will all learn chess because they will be strong children. Play chess, so think about where you can go. "