Less Than a Year Before Millennial Tourist Influx, Nazareth Bogged Down in Christian-Muslim Dispute

By Fred Strickert

Nine months before the beginning of millennial celebrations, the city of Nazareth is suffering an ill-timed dispute that threatens to paralyze plans to refurbish the city where Christ lived for millions of expected visitors in the coming year, and to seriously harm relationships between Muslim and Christian residents.

The issue: a debate whether a mosque or a Venetian-style plaza will be built on land adjacent to the famous Church of the Annunciation in the heart of Nazareth.

The underlying issue: the role of Christian leadership as Christians become a minority and Muslims the majority in this traditional Arab town within Israeli borders.

Contributing factors: the precarious status of Israel’s Arab community, comprising 20 percent of Israel’s population, vis-à-vis the surrounding Jewish majority with a critical election at hand and with the potential of millions of dollars to be earned from Christian tourists visiting the Holy Land to commemorate the symbolic celebration of Jesus’ birth some 2,000 years ago.

The Headlines: “Riot Police Patrol Nazareth,” “Nazareth Muslims Enforce Strike,” “Israel Churches Closed in Protest,” “Bombs Damage Two Nazareth Shops.”

The Traditional Status of Nazareth

Since the partition of Palestine in 1948, Nazareth has been Israel’s predominant Arab city and one that is quite visible because of its role in Christianity. The city’s showpiece is the modern-styled Church of the Annunciation built in 1968 which daily welcomes busloads of visitors. Underneath lie a series of earlier church structures that stand upon ruins said to be the place where the angel Gabriel visited the young girl Mary and announced to her that she would soon become pregnant and give birth to Jesus.

Perhaps the most fascinating feature of this edifice is the collection of artwork representations of the Madonna and child from nearly every corner of the earth. This itself is a reminder of the symbolic nature of this place for the whole world. Ironically, the main street leading to the church is called “Paul VI Street,” named for the last pope to visit the Holy Land. Speculation concerning a possible upcoming visit of Pope John Paul II revolves mostly around the possibility that a peace with justice could bring unity and tolerance to a land that has known little of either for more than half a century.

Most visitors to Nazareth leave with a positive spiritual impression, and a lot of questions. Who exactly are these Christians and Muslims living here as Israeli citizens, and how does their status differ from that of the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank?

Nazareth has been Israel’s dominant Arab city.

Most of the answers are connected with the United Nations decision in 1947 to partition Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Muslim and Christian Arabs. Originally, Nazareth was to have been part of the Arab nation—the narrow part of an upside-down triangle which extended north to the Lebanese border. On July 17, 1948, however, Israeli soldiers occupied all of that triangle, and Nazareth has been in Israeli hands ever since.

The 1948 war, of course, is well known for the refugee crisis to which it gave birth—Arabs who fled to escape the fighting or were driven from their homes at gunpoint by Israeli fighters were barred from returning to Israeli-administered areas and lost their homes forever. Thousands of residents of Nazareth were able to remain, however, and were granted Israeli citizenship.

Because the story of the annunciation to Mary is included in the Qur’an, which also describes Jesus as a prophet of God, both Muslims and Christians have found Nazareth a special place in which to live, and together they have provided a model of tolerance and cooperation. All of the Palestinian Arab residents of Nazareth bonded further as Israel spent thousands of dollars to build from scratch a nearby rival Jewish city, Nazareth-Illit, while the Arab municipality of Nazareth received but a trickle of public funds. Discrimination-driven conflict with their new Jewish neighbors thus served to unite the Muslims and Christians of old Nazareth.

Like all Arab citizens of Israel, the residents of Arab Nazareth do have the right to vote in Israeli elections so that the current Knesset does include several Arab representatives. In 1996, however, many Arab Israelis chose to boycott the elections—a decision which many analysts believe affected the final outcome (the reasoning is that Arab voters would have more likely chosen Peres over Netanyahu). With Arab voters making up more than 15 percent of the electorate, the current close election campaign may well be affected by the decisions of residents of towns like Nazareth—now 60,000 in population. In a Washington Post article, Lee Hockstader even raises the question whether a Nazareth divided against itself would aid the chances of victory for the incumbent Likud Party.

A City Known for Tolerance Begins to Fracture

The seeds of division have been present in Nazareth for some time. Christian residents have benefited disproportionately over the years from tourist dollars, since most of the major shops are owned by Christians. At the same time, with a lower birth rate the Christians today make up only one-third of the 60,000 residents—the reverse of the population ratio a half-century ago. Therefore, although Christians traditionally dominated city government, municipal elections last November resulted in a divided city government. The incumbent Christian mayor, Ramez Jeraisi, was narrowly re-elected, but he has been unable to form a ruling coalition since the majority of the new 19-member city council is Muslim.

The situation has been further exacerbated by the role of the Israeli government in planning for the influx of millennium pilgrims. In order to compete with the attractions of Bethlehem 2000—now in the hands of the Palestinian Authority—Israel’s tourist authority has chosen to invest heavily in improvements in Nazareth—estimated at $80 million. Clearly, all residents will benefit to some degree from such amenities as newly paved streets, the refurbished market and the 1,000 new hotel rooms. At issue, however, is a half-acre plot of land adjacent to the Church of the Annunciation which has been appropriated by the city for the purpose of erecting a Venetian-style visitors plaza designed to relieve tourist congestion.

Muslims say the land belongs to the Islamic Trust, or Waqf, and want to build a large $20 million mosque with a towering minaret on the site comparable in size to the church of the Annunciation. The dispute is in the courts and the plaza development is on hold.

Mayor Jeraisi, and apparently the Israeli tourist advisers, believe that the state of Israel holds ownership. Sixteen months ago he initiated the refurbishing with the order to bulldoze an old abandoned school occupying the disputed land. In a land where symbols are important it did not go unnoticed that a corner of the disputed land contains the grave of Shihab ed-Din, nephew of the famed Salah ed-Din, the Muslim hero who led the defeat of the Crusaders in the final battle at the Horns of Hittin.

Muslims responded by erecting a tent on the site where daily prayers have been held. They also made this a primary issue in the elections last fall.

Violence that broke out during Easter week led to the injury of 12 persons and damage to 30 cars. The Muslim community called for a strike, which was honored by Christian businessmen, and the gates to the Church of the Annunciation were locked for two days.

In an AP story, Dina Kraft captured the reactions of residents:

“My house was attacked with stones today,” said Salim Suliman, a 68-year-old Christian shopkeeper. “I never imagined that this would happen. We always lived in tolerance.”

“We Christians and Muslims live together, we are neighbors,” resident Kaid Aboud told Kraft. “Suddenly it’s become Christians against Muslims. How did we get to this?”

While Israeli riot police roamed the streets of Nazareth, there was speculation that the Israeli government might depose the municipal government and appoint representatives to its liking.

There has already been one political casualty. Avi Blustein, director general of Israel’s Religions Ministry, was stripped of his authority when he announced inaccurately that Christians were planning to shut down all churches in the Holy Land in protest and that the Vatican had announced the cancellation of plans for a papal visit. This reduced chances that the Israeli government might play a positive role in brokering a settlement.

American Appeals for a Settlement

In the United States, the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) and the American Muslim Council (AMC) appealed to Muslims and Christians in Nazareth to “quickly unite to end the violence and recriminations” and offered to send mediators to help find a solution.

The two organizations stressed that the continuation of confessional strife would serve neither Christianity nor Islam and warned that while Nazareth has long been noted for its “history of coexistence, cooperation, and tolerance among people of various faiths,” worldwide attention to the current tension has generated “a negative impression of the city’s population as an intolerant community.”

Muslims and Christians have coexisted in the Holy Land for 13 centuries. The relative success at this endeavor has been the result of numerous acts of generosity and kindness and a prevailing attitude of religious sensitivity—those less optimistic would perhaps cite a litany of examples where this was not the case. Nevertheless two ancient models of cooperation come to mind.

When Caliph Omar arrived in Jerusalem in 637 A.D. after the Arab defeat of the Byzantine forces, the Christian Patriarch Sophronius provided him a tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Realizing that it was the Muslim time for prayer, the Patriarch invited the Caliph to say his prayers within the church structure. Omar, however, prayed in the courtyard and then explained: “If I had prayed in the church it would have been lost to you for the Believers would have taken it saying: ‘Omar prayed here.’” Thus the mosque of Omar was constructed a short distance away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Some 12 centuries later when Muslims began arriving in Bethlehem, the Christians willingly offered space to the Muslims. The current Mosque of Omar on the west side of Manger Square in Bethlehem stands upon the ruins of an old Byzantine Church dedicated to John the Evangelist. The land was a gift from the Christian orthodox patriarch in 1861.

From within Nazareth, Ahmad Zoubi, a deputy mayor and member of the Islamic Party, suggested a compromise solution whereby a mosque could be constructed on stilts above the plaza. “The year 2000 doesn’t just belong to the Christians,” said Zoubi, “It belongs to us, too. . . . We Muslims also want to feel equal during these celebrations for 2000.”

On April 20, in a move to defuse the situation, Israel’s minister in charge of Arab affairs, Moshe Katsav, also proposed a compromise: the property be split in half, with a smaller-than-planned plaza for the Church of the Annunciation, and a small mosque on the Muslim portion of the land. In addition the city would offer a plot of land elsewhere in Nazareth for the larger mosque. For now the mayor appears to be going along.

Some may see here an attempt to emulate Solomon of old. Yet still missing from the picture is the magnanimous loving gesture of the mother figure who puts first the interest of the young child—the one who looks to the well-being of the next generation of Muslim and Christian children in Nazareth as the city itself is about to be reborn into the third millennium.

The city remains divided on how to deal with these proposals. The majority, however, likely share the sentiments of Rafieh Shihaberi, a 53-year-old Muslim resident of the city. “What is happening in Nazareth is not in the interest of either Muslims or Christians.”

Dr. Fred Strickert is professor of religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.