Israel’s risky internal front: There is a lot of unrest in Jesus’ hometown

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Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, is making the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (74) sweat. One hundred percent of the nearly 90,000 people in the northern Israeli city are Palestinians, including many Christians. Until recently, pro-Palestinian graffiti was painted on the walls of houses instead of the Star of David. The police had the slogans ‘Free Palestine’ painted over. But the growing anger among the population over their government’s war on Gaza has not disappeared – on the contrary.

“The situation here could explode at any moment,” said Suheil Diab (68), the city’s deputy mayor for many years. “The anger in Nazareth still only simmers underground.” But the images from Gaza, a two-hour drive south of here, could change the mood.

Before long, Netanyahu’s government would have to be on guard not only against Hamas rockets and Lebanese Hezbollah attacks, but also against a dangerous domestic front. Nearly one in five of Israel’s nine and a half million residents is Palestinian – not including the 2.3 million people in Gaza and the three million residents of the West Bank!

On the Sabbath, the music drowns out the roar of fighter jets

Mass protests, violent riots, sabotage: everything is conceivable, says Suheil Diab. “The social dynamics in Nazareth are difficult to predict – and even more difficult to control.” Many here remember October 2000, when many in Nazareth sympathized with the armed Palestinian resistance (Intifada) in the West Bank and Israeli police in the city shot and killed thirteen people in one day.

“Israel has always treated us Palestinians as foreign bodies,” Diab said in a hotel lobby in the Old City. The ringing of bells and the call of the muezzin sound through the barred window. In Nazareth, Christians and Muslims live side by side. Jewish visitors are only seen here on the Sabbath, when restaurants in the rest of the country are closed and Israelis flock to restaurants in Nazareth. Instead of the roar of fighter jets attacking Syrian targets from the nearby air base, loud music fills the streets.

“We are the Indians of this area,” says Diab. “We were already here when Israel was founded in 1948.” Unlike many Palestinians in other parts of the country, his people were not displaced here in the north. “And now we fear that things could be similar to what happened to the Indians in America.”

In 2018, for example, the Israeli government made it clear to Palestinians in the country what it thought of them: Arabic was removed as the official national language and Jewish holidays were established as national symbols. An insult to the almost two million Palestinian citizens in Israel.

“We will not be chased away – we will not repeat this mistake.”

The bullying in daily life is enormous, Blick learns from several people he spoke to in Nazareth, who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear. For example, their official documents, such as their driver’s license, are always issued on the 15th of the month, so that the police can immediately recognize that the person they are talking to is a Palestinian-Israeli.

Suheil Diab says this is just the beginning. “Israel will try to solve the Palestinian problem once and for all in the October 7 slipstream.” But his people will not be driven away. “Many people made this mistake when the state was founded in 1948. We will not repeat it. We’d rather die here.”

At the foot of the hills on which Nazareth is so picturesquely situated lies the Armageddon Valley, which, according to the Bible, was the site of the last great decisive battle. Is it coming now? Perhaps not at the initiative of the Hamas terrorists from outside, but of the angry Palestinians from within?

People pray – but not for Israel

Suheil Diab hopes not. He is committed to peace – just like the priest in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who is said to have learned here that she was pregnant. The priest invites people to pray several times a day – emphatically not for Israel, but for peace. The terror of Hamas, which also killed Arab Israelis in its attack on Israel on October 7, is condemned. But not too loud. According to a visitor to the peace prayers, the turnout of faithful Palestinians at the peace prayers is enormous. If things don’t work out on earth, you flee to heaven.

Yet it is quieter around the basilica than in times of peace, when believers from all over the world gather here for services and devotions. Instead of pilgrim tourists, residents of 28 communities in Israel’s far north now fill hotel rooms in Nazareth. The Israeli government forcibly evacuated the area, where many Arab Bedouins live in addition to Jews.

Not at all to the great joy of the people in Nazareth. “Israelis and Bedouins are the worst guests you can imagine,” a hotel owner told Blick. “I want the Swiss back. They are the most decent of all.” It will be a long time before they return. No one knows whether Nazareth will find its way back to peace or whether modern Armageddon will threaten.

Source: Blick