[Reporter] This gas station in northern Israel is at a junction between Arab and Jewish towns
where daily life often goes on without incident
but where recent violence show the delicate fabric of coexistence can tear apart in an instant.
They were throwing stones at cars passing here.
[Reporter] Last month chaos surrounded the old gas station Shoshy Stavy's family has run
for generations.
And the new expansion they were getting set to open.
On May 12th, an angry mob of Jewish men, some tied to an extremist group of soccer fans
took over the intersection looking for Palestinian Arabs.
[Shoshy] I just saw a lot of people.
A lot of flags, bats, noise, shouting.
Firecrackers like battlezone.
[Reporter] It quickly turned ugly.
[Shoshy] An Arab walked here and he was beaten up.
Really, they were trying to kill people.
[Reporter] And all the while you're just hoping that your workers are hidden and safe.
Yes, well I knew they were hiding.
Everything I saw was basically outside this window.
[Reporter] Her son Naaman texted his two Arab workers throughout the night
as he stood watch.
[Naaman] It was naturally terrifying.
I was afraid for myself.
I was afraid for the business.
I was afraid for the people that I know.
The crowd was on their doorstep.
From the darkness of their hiding spot, Dib Jurban was in disbelief.
We said to each other what do they want from us?
Both of us have worked here for over 15 year
and everybody knows one another.
Why us of all people?
It was the end of Ramadan but instead of celebrating with their family
Jurban and Osmat Shab huddled in fear for five harrowing hours.
I had high blood pressure, racing hard.
I was scared.
I went into shock.
The experience uniting them in a way they never imagined.
The beauty of this country has always been at odds with the ugly combination
of hatred and ideology that lives here.
20 per cent of the country's population is Arab
and those early nights of violence saw Arab mobs on the streets as well .
Like here in Acre, one of a handful of Israeli cities with a large Arab population.
After the fire, they went from here to the other side and robbed everything.
[Reporter] But less than a week after hosting a dinner with community members of all faiths
Uri Yirmias' well-known fish restaurant was fire bombed by an Arab mob.
It's partly because I'm Jewish and partly because i'm representing the coexistence.
Yeah, so both of them together makes me an enemy of the of the radicals.
Twenty guests and Arab staff including his chef and sous chef hid here
until it was safe for them to escape.
But despite what they went through, Yirmias decided he wouldn't be drawn
into a never-ending spiral of retribution.
I decided on the spot that I'm not going to be led by anger or revenge.
[Reporter] As he begins to rebuild his restaurant he says restoring and repairing
the delicate balance between Arabs and Jews will be a long and gruellling task.
One radical with a match in his hand can create a fire
that the thousand brave fire brigade people cannot extinguish.
[Reporter] Back at the gas station, they hired a security guard
and are reminded every day how difficult it will be to restore that delicate balance.
As we speak a man on a motorcycle pulls up.
The man swears at us as he walks by.
He seems a little off.
[Shoshy] That's my life.
The situation now is when an Arab customer comes and all relax
and when one of those guys come, a little bit tense.
[Reporter] In the weeks since, they've watched as local media have ignored what happened here.
A reminder coexistence doesn't mean equality.
Nationally, Israeli police have cracked down on people involved in the ethnic riots
but the vast majority of those arrested and charged are Palestinian Arabs.
The anxiety of that night still haunts Naaman
bringing home a cruel reality.
They were carrying Israeli flags and it really saddens me that the symbol of my country
has become something that worries me.
Yeah
They said you don't have to worry, you're Jewish.
But any Arab we see here is dead.
Especially for Jews, with the history of the Holocaust, we should know better.
[Reporter] The last month has held up a mirror to Israeli society
and all the cracks that come with it that can't be so easily fixed.
Steven D'Souza, CBC News, Jerusalem.