Shocking, appalling – there’s no other way to describe the destruction of Evan Fallenberg’s Arabesque Arts and Residency Center in the Old City of Acre (Akko).

The Ottoman-era building that Fallenberg and his son, Micha, spent three years restoring as a beautiful retreat and boutique hotel was smashed and ransacked during a recent spate of riots in mixed Arab-Jewish cities.

Fallenberg has no doubt that Arabesque was targeted, like other Akko businesses such as the Uri Buri restaurant and Efendi Hotel, because it is owned by Jews.

But he harbors no resentment and has no desire to react in any way other than to rebuild the eight-year-old Arabesque.

“I don’t have an ounce of anger in me about this, no frustration or bitterness,” Fallenberg tells ISRAEL21c. “Not because I suppressed it but because it’s not what I have felt from the very first moment.”

’45 minutes to destroy the whole place’

The attack began shortly after midnight as May 12 slid into May 13. Already on Tuesday, May 11, rioters intending to harm Arabesque were chased away by the Arab next-door neighbor who is like family to the Fallenbergs.

“Our place was spared three or four times on Tuesday night because my neighbor and his son sat outside till 4 in the morning,” Fallenberg says.

The hotel was full that day. The police told Micha Fallenberg, the center’s manager, to make sure the guests stayed in their rooms. At 7:00 Wednesday morning, he and two Arabesque employees made breakfast for the guests, and later everyone checked out safely.

Fortunately, the hotel was empty when all hell broke loose later that night. The police would not enter the Old City, and the next-door friend was no match for the emboldened mob of about 50 youths, who threatened to torch the whole neighborhood.

“Micha was at home, five minutes away, watching the security camera footage until they destroyed the camera. It took them about 15 minutes to break down the massive front door and 45 minutes to destroy the whole place,” says Fallenberg, who was asleep in his studio just outside the Old City when the attack happened.

The unidentified assailants, he says, “are young men with raging hormones, people who are not the best students or don’t have great jobs, with not much to lose. Some may have been from outside Akko but whoever was directing them knew exactly which places to hit.”

However, he didn’t feel personally attacked.

“I felt a deep sadness that people could be driven to this level of anger and violence. I think it comes from two places. One is the way Israeli society has treated the Arab population not like full and welcome citizens. The other is that there are issues festering within Arab society that are not being admitted or dealt with properly. I feel we are all guilty for letting this thing happen and we all have a role to play in making things better.”

A decision to stay and rebuild

After Arabesque was ruined, Fallenberg spent three days in mourning. Perhaps he’d been wrong about Akko, a city in which Arab Muslims and Christians comprise more than a third of the 50,000 residents.

“Was what I thought was genuine love and respect not real? Who did I think I was, coming into such a foreign place?” he wondered.

“But what I heard from neighbors over the succeeding days pr