The City of Nazareth v. Upper Nazareth

On the second day of our tour, we went to the City of Nazareth where Jesus was from. I did not realize it until we went there, but there are two sections of Nazareth. The first being the City of Nazareth, where the Church of Annunciation is and the second being Upper Nazareth. Over the years the demographics of Nazareth have changed significantly, creating a division of the city. Upper Nazareth is a Jewish city where the City of Nazareth is a primarily Muslim city (about 75% Muslim and 25% Christian). As I stated after the first day, their are three official religions in Israel: Hebrew, Arabic, and English. In the City of Nazareth, most of the signs are only in Arabic, which reflect the culture of the city.

Outside the Church of Annunciation is a very controversial site. In the 1980's, Christians and Jews started to leave the Middle East, especially Nazareth and move to South America. When these people moved to South America, they had a belief that if one person in their family was able to succeed abroad, then their entire family could succeed. These Jews and Christians allowed the Muslims to start taking over the city and many of them were radical Muslims. In Nazareth specifically, the Muslims started to show that they had power in Israel, so in 2000 the Muslims said that a prophet was buried outside the basilica of the Church of Annunciation. Because of this claim, they wanted a mosque to be built in front of the Church. Christians and Jews in the area and throughout Israel panicked at this thought and the government in Israel had to become involved in the matter and block the building of the mosque. To appease the Muslims though, they built a park in front of the basilica where Muslims can gather. Every Friday at noon, Muslims from that area come and pray to Allah. As our Jewish tour guide put it, it is the responsibility of the Jews in Israel to keep the country as close to their Jewish heritage as possible for future generations.

Below are some pictures from that area. Directly in between the basilica and the park is a Muslim building, where Muslim men are constantly entering. Above the building they have a quote from the Quran which is in both english and arabic. I found it interesting that it was not in hebrew, but I guess that is because Jews do not typically go to that part of Nazareth.



Muslim building with the top of the basilica in the background.




Quote from the Quran at the top of their buidling.




Stree sign next to the park showing where the closest cities are and they are written in all three official languages.




Muslim man leaving the building in traditional Muslim attire.

I wanted to share this with you because I thought it was very fascinating. Our tour guide is a secular Jew and throughout our tour he has made numerous anti-Muslim comments and it was interesting how in our visit to Nazareth he took us to this particular spot to explain what was occurring between the religions. This shows the continual aggression and even hatred for each other that these relgions have, which is further displayed in the current issue over Israel's border.