i went up to nazareth the other weekend for a get together of international
christian students in israel. it was a great time. nazareth is the largest arab
city in israel, and and the hometown of Jesus. though the arabs of nazareth are
full citizens of israel, sadly the population is very segregated. the almost entirely
jewish city of nazareth illit is situated at the crest of a semicircular hill
that surrounds the arab city, much like the settlements in the west bank.
debates over the allocation of water, the building of bomb shelters, where the
busses stop etc are common. nothing illegal or as charged as in the west bank,
but it is sad that there isn’t more appetite for integration between arabs and
jews within israel proper.
we went up and had a delicious dinner of chicken at a local restaurant
on thursday evening, then stayed in an atmospheric ottoman era mansion-turned
hostel in the old city called fauzi azar. while there i ran into a random
friend from college! on friday morning we visited the church of the
annunciation, the main sight in nazarath, which marks the spot where mary
learned of the impending birth of Jesus. interestingly, various artists
representing numerous countries around the world were commissioned to create
artwork depicting mary and the Christ child: these culturally disparate
visualizations are positioned around the church and the courtyard. there are
many other less famous churches, monasteries and mosques sprinkled around the
city as well. we then visited nazareth village, a replica/reenactment of first-century
nazareth. though it sounds childish, it was actually very well done, and our
guide had many an explanation of Jesus’ various parables and how they would
have been interpreted in the context and customs of the time. i really enjoyed
it. then i climbed a huge hill for a view over the city before attempting to
return to beer sheva, which was complicated by the fact that shabbat was
looming so the buses had already stopped. managed to get home via three sherut
(shared-taxi) rides and eight hours later. nice weekend!
