To Nazareth and Environs

April 23, 2009

The four of us fit comfortably into a Kia Magentis and we headed up Highway 2 to 65, past Afula to Mt. Gilboa. The travel books are right. A meal at the Country Restaurant, overlooking the Jezreel Valley is not to be missed. The fertile valley, with its neatly divided fields with a multitude of colors depending on the crop, is a magnificent site. The restaurant is perched on the side of the mountain like a treehouse, part way to the peak. The main courses were delicious and then we could not resist the temptation of dessert. Usually accustomed to sharing one dessert or at most two when with friends, we ended up with three, the most unusual of which was a selection of tahina and halvah ice cream with a date sauce. We tried, but could not resist finishing the last morsel and Pat remarked on the quality, “this really is the Promised Land!” We drove on to the peak after lunch. From the peak, not only the Jezreel valley is stunning, but also the views of Bet She’an, in the Jordan Valley, not far from the Jordan River, and beyond that the hills of Jordan. To the south is Jenin and the security barrier meandering.

We then headed west, along Route 71, onto the Afula ring road, to Route 60 into Nazareth. The modern highway climbs into the hills and then soon deteriorates into a maize of streets, most barely wide enough for the chaotic movements of the many cars and trucks, and few if any marked. There are a few signs to denote prominent sites, such as Mary’s Well and the Church of the Assumption, but this did not appear to be a city that is friendly to tourists. Navigating to our destination was analogous to airplanes being guided by control towers. Linda was on the phone, calling out the names of stores or landmarks, to a young volunteer woman (from Illinois) at the inn, who gently guided us to a narrow street where we were met by another young volunteer, this young man from Indiana. We carried our packs along narrow cobblestone passageways for a few minutes and then turned on an even narrower lane that brought us to the main entrance of the Fauzi Azar Inn.

The inn is a restored Arab mansion in the heart of the Old City. Suraida Nasser, one of the five daughters of the family that had owned the house for over 100 years, serves as the manager. As she explained, the Inn has been brought to life by an Israeli Jew who approached the family about opening a guest house in Nazareth. Although, in Suraida’s words, her grandfather had insisted that he would “refuse to sell to a Jew and that the grandchildren of his grandchildren should not sell to a Jew,” she and Maoz established a close and trusting relationship so that he has, what appears to be, a long-term lease on the mansion. It is always amazing how religion colors and dominates the way people describe their circumstances, not to mention lead their lives. Suraida sends her son to a Baptist school. “Why would I send him to a Jewish school?” she remarked, while adding, “I am not a Baptist (with some disdain), but it is a good school.”

Sarah, a recent archeology graduate from Holland, has come to Israel for six months, because she plans to study middle east archeology in graduate school. Although she is not Jewish, she had planned to work on a kibbutz for a while, using it as a base for travel, but the opportunity to volunteer at the inn in Nazareth brought her to this Arab city. Among her responsibilities are conducting walking tours of the Old City and the 15 shekels per person, helps to pay for her meals. Our two hour excursion took us to a small coffee house run by Wessam, who is a DJ by night, but runs his family coffee house by day, through the shuk, to the large and prosperous spice shop, and ending at a small restaurant that serves a kind of thick crepe pancake filled with cheese or nuts. The owner left for mid-day prayers at the mosque after serving us. When he still had not returned after we had thoroughly digested this delicious treat, we considered trying to explain in a mixture of Hebrew and English to a man who seemed to be a neighboring shopkeeper that we would like to leave the 100 shekels with him, but then, on second thought, decided that Sarah could just return later to pay in person. These personal tours of the nooks and crannies of the Old City by young people from the inn are a precious contrast to the standard visits to churches and relics.

“What has surprised you the most, since coming to Israel, Sarah?”
After a few seconds to think, she offered, “in Holland we only hear from Jews about Israel. I have learned about Arabs.”

Nazareth is the largest city of Arab-Israeli citizens, about 65,000 in number, of which nearly 70% are Muslim and the rest Christian. There are few, if any, Jews residing in Nazareth, but the new city of Nazareth Ilit on the adjacent hill is home to about 40,000 Jews. Suraida is quite vocal about the politics of Nazareth, both within the Arab community, and between the Arab and Jewish communities. Within the Arab community the tension between the Christians and Muslims is palpable, especially as parts of the Arab Muslim community become more fundamentalist in their positions. She commented that for all of the problems posed by Yassir Arafat, from her perspective, he was a voice for the Palestinian/Arab people—Muslim and Christian—distinct from Hamas’ and Hizbullah’s Muslim cast on Palestinian/Arab identity. In the city of Nazareth, there is a critical mass of Christian Arabs, but in many other parts of the West Bank, and perhaps Jerusalem, this is a shrinking minority of the Arab populace. With regard to the relationships between Jews and Arabs, we could not help but be sympathetic as she described the subtle and official discrimination that Arabs face. Perched on the peak of the neighboring hill, where Nazareth Ilit is booming, is a 12 story courthouse, about ten years old. Both the height of the structure and the prominent towers on the corners create the impression that this castle-like structure is more than an administrative headquarters, perhaps that it is a statement about control. The expansion of housing in Nazareth has not seen a parallel investment of resources in housing in Nazareth. The Azar family lost something like 100,000 acres of land after the War of Independence. The most troubling expression was the discrimination in treatment she experienced when traveling to the U.S. with colleagues, Jewish and Arab. She is pulled aside for additional security, not always in a respectful way. “Why not pull aside everyone, “equalism”, which is a very expressive term. Even acknowledging the unquestionable need for security precautions by Israel, the consequences of treating people differently over time, based on an ethnic classification (Arab), cannot help to strengthen this extraordinarily diverse country, if it is to continue to thrive when 20% of the population is Arab.