Big Bang in Nazareth - 19-Apr-99

Big Bang in Nazareth

(Article by Sharon Gal, "Ha'aretz", April 19, 1999, p. B2)

Why did the ongoing dispute between Christians and Muslims in Nazareth rise to the surface? Because of the politicians, of course.

The trip from one end of Paulus VI Street -- Nazareth's main street -- to the other, takes at least 40 minutes on a weekday. It is not hard to describe what would happen in Jesus' boyhood town if the predictions are true and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come to visit about half a year from now. If this problem were not enough, the "big bang" hangs over the town, in the worlds of a town elder -- an uncompromising religious-communal struggle between the town's Christians and Muslims focusing on the disputed area known as "Shihab a-Din." According to the Muslims, the area was so-named because of its proximity to the grave of Muslim holy man Shihab a-Din.

"During my childhood, I remember walking by its neglected dome, and each time I could not help peeking inside with a scared glance, wondering to whom the grave inside belonged," wrote Azmi Bishara, who grew up in Nazareth, and is now a prime ministerial candidate for the Arab Democratic Party. In a recently published book he edited, Between I and We, Bishara cynically describes the confrontation in Nazareth through his office window in a three-story building directly across from the disputed site. "The town's residents who have seized the site and set up a large tent, now claim that the grave belongs to the holy man Shihab a-Din. They cannot really prove who the holy man was, or when he died, but many stories are now circulating about his wonderful deeds as an army commander under Saladin, who liberated the country from the Crusaders," writes Bishara, who is Christian.

Although both he and Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jeraisi (Hadash) are Christians, Bishara does not spare the municipality his criticism. "The secular municipality," he writes, "which does not understand what is happening, failed to halt developments on the ground, and may even have contributed to them ... Regrettably, it did not even try to enter into a dialog with the first people who took up residence in the square, who were not from the organized Islamic Movement."

Politics plays an important role in the struggle over the disputed site. Not for nothing was the confrontation intensified precisely on the eve of the municipal elections six months ago and the Knesset and prime ministerial elections now. During the municipal elections, the information campaign of the United Nazareth faction, which was supported by the Islamic Movement, turned on the issue of Shihab a-Din. Every three days the town was covered by leaflets on the issue. "Theft, theft, theft," said one of them in relatively moderate language.

Faction chairman Salman Abu Ahmed is also director of the Islamic Movement's political department, and the latter sought to exploit the confrontation over the half-acre in the town center in order to increase its power on Nazareth's streets. Abu Ahmed won the support of both factions of the Islamic Movement -- the northern one headed by Umm al-Fahm Mayor Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, and the southern one headed by Sheikh Nimer Darwish.

Jeraisi did not like the Islamic Movement's information campaign. However, he admitted that United Nazareth was successful in bringing about voting on a communal basis. Although he won the mayoralty by a narrow majority of 52%, his faction, the Democratic Nazareth Front, lost its majority in the municipal council, winning only 9 of 19 seats.

Since November, the municipality has been practically paralyzed. There is no coalition and the mayor is finding it difficult to get decisions passed. Among other things, the Islamic Movement has made its joining the municipal coalition conditional on the establishment of four mosques in the town, including on the disputed site, teaching Islam in all the town's schools and affirmative action in the town's peripheral Muslim neighborhoods. It claims that the "Christian-controlled" municipality neglected these neighborhoods in recent years.

Jeraisi rejected the conditions submitted by the Islamic Movement. He especially opposes the movement's attempt to link the municipal coalition to the issue of the disputed site. Some two months after the elections, following a meeting of the municipal council -- the only one convened since November 1998 -- United Nazareth proposed two candidates for the posts of deputy mayors. Ten council members voted in favor -- all members of the faction. Nine were opposed -- Jeraisi and his supporters. The meeting exploded and a fight erupted in the town streets. The faction recently appealed to the High Court of Justice to uphold the election results and compel the mayor to provide the deputy mayors "elected by the majority of votes of the council" with offices and other services. Two days ago, it withdrew the appeal "as an act of goodwill in order to make progress in the negotiations over the disputed site."

United Nazareth achieved some of its objectives: the Shihab a-Din issue brought in more than a few Muslim votes and a blocking majority in the council, that "paralyzes" the mayor. After the local election campaign, the town calmed down, although the political contacts regarding Shihab a-Din continued. However, the Knesset and prime ministerial elections reignited the conflagration. The physical confrontation between a Muslim and Christian groups, following the Easter midnight mass two weeks ago, was not exceptional. It could have ended that same night, as had many other even more serious clashes.

But the scene was set. The next morning, loudspeakers in the improvised mosque at the disputed site called on the town's Muslims to prepare for "the holy struggle for the sacred land." Thousands answered the call, and it took only a short time for matters to deteriorate into riots, stone-throwing, window-smashing, looting of Christian-owned stores, throwing of Molotov cocktails and exchanges of blows.

The timing and extent of the clashes captivated politicians across the political spectrum. The Nazareth municipality vigorously accuses the Likud and Shas of supporting the Waqf. Shas has considerable electoral support in the Arab sector, and won tens of thousands of votes in 1992 and 1996. There is extensive political activity in 13 villages in the Galilee by key Shas activists, who attend party conventions and meet party leaders in Jerusalem. "Our Aryeh Deri is Ra'ad Salah," said an Islamic Movement activist this week. "Both use politics and religion, both work in distressed neighborhoods, they speak the same language," he explained.

Last week, Shas Interior Minister Eliahu Suissa revoked the authority of Interior Ministry Director General Avi Blustein, a member of the National Religious Party. This happened after Blustein called on Tourism Minister Moshe Katzav not to take a pro-Muslim position at the expense of the Christians. After talks held with senior Christian leaders under his authority as ministry director general, Blustein warned that the Vatican might close all churches in Israel if a mosque is built on the disputed site. He spoke and lost his position.

Interior Minister Suissa did not show similar determination six months ago when the northern district director of the Interior Ministry and chairman of the district planning and construction committee, Yigal Shahar, instructed the Nazareth municipality to revoke an administrative demolition order against the protest tent established by the Muslims on the disputed site. The tent was erected as a protest against the plan to build a public plaza that would lead to the Basilica of the Annunciation. Regarding the plan, Shahar said at the time, "This is a proper urban solution and is compatible with the municipality's master plan and blueprint." But there were no elections on the horizon then. Yesterday, Shahar was more cautious. "We are trying to intervene as little as possible in the land dispute," he explained. "I have no authority to speak one way or another."

The visit by Interior Minsiter Suissa to Taibeh 10 days ago can serve as an indication about the relationship between Shas and the Arab sector. The minister, who is the head of Shas' election campaign for the Arab sector, announced an NIS 20 million grant for the municipality and a loan for another NIS 20 million. Acting Mayor Salah Jabara promised the minister that he would mobilize thousands of voters for Shas in the elections. "In exchange for the minister's promise of money, so that we may function, we promised to support Shas in the elections," Jabara told Yediot Ahronot. During the visit, Suissa called for a six-month freeze of legal proceedings against the municipality.

An Interior Ministry spokesman explained that "debts paralyzed the municipality and there was a need to find a new way to enable direct payments from the Interior Ministry to creditors. The action was legally authorized by all parties."

Last week, the government set up a special ministerial committee to deal with Nazareth issue. Although the confrontation has already gone on for a year and a half, the government was in no rush to intervene. Until now, when it became clear that the Palestinian Authority was trying to achieve a compromise between the Islamic Movement and Hadash. Two months ago, Ha'aretz reported that Likud activists had arrived in Nazareth, presenting themselves as representatives of the prime minister and the GSS, and told members of the Islamic Movement that those who sent them supported their demand for the establishment of a mosque. "What has happened that the Likud all of a sudden is trying to free Waqf land?", asked Ramez Hakim, a spokesman for the Nazareth Municipality, this week. "There is electioneering going on here, this is clear. This land has always fallen under the auspices of the Israel Lands Authority. How is it that all of a sudden the government comes up with a compromise proposal to set up a little mosque on the land, thereby giving up such a large amount of land so easily?"

One Israel also sought a part in the arena, well-covered by the media. In the course of his mediation effort on behalf of the government, Knesset Internal Affairs Committee chairman MK Micha Goldman (Labor) called an urgent discussion in the committee. Heated clashes ensued and there were harsh exchanges between the representatives of the police and the those of the Muslims. However, no solution was achieved and only a protocol was printed and filed. Goldman did not despair and last Friday he invited Jeraisi and Abu Ahmed to his house in Kfar Tabor. His spokesman took the trouble to remind journalists about the meeting a number of times. He was less diligent regarding the results, since this time too nothing was achieved except for a decision to meet again the following week. This meeting, though, did not take place because Jeraisi canceled it. No one took the trouble to inform journalists of the cancellation of the meeting, not even Goldman's energetic spokesmen.

Sammy Smooha, professor of sociology at Haifa University and an expert on Israeli Arabs, believes that the current tension is not the whole story. In his view, whatever solution is found to resolve the dispute surrounding the land in the city center will likely stir up a new dispute, since "there is long-standing tension between Muslims and Christians in Nazareth, against the background of competition between the communities, the demographic weakening of the Christians and the power struggles in the city." He ridicules the claim heard recently from many in the city -- Christians and Muslims -- according to which the dispute is not ethnic in nature, but rather a struggle between the Waqf and the municipality. According to Smooha, the source of the problem lies in a phenomenon which began 30 years ago: the departure from Israel by many Christians, bound for Europe and the United States.

"A similar phenomenon exists in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other countries, although accurate figures for it are not known," explains Smooha. He notes that the Vatican is aware of the problem and is troubled by it. In 1949, Christians were 20% of the Arab population of Israel. Today they are only 13%, Professor Smooha stresses. With regard to the present dispute he says: "The Muslims found this specific point -- the land in the center of the city -- and it broke out, but the real issue is far wider." The Christians, he adds, are trying to avoid an ethnic dispute and are therefore trying to present the crisis as "local, since they know they would lose."

According to different accounts, the current population of Nazareth is 35% Christian and 65% Muslim. Their electoral strength is equal, says Dr. Assad Ghanem, an expert on Israeli Arabs in Haifa University Department of Political Science, because the proportion of people with the right to vote is greater in the Christian community than among the Muslims.

Amer, a 34-year old Muslim, owns a book shop adjoining the disputed area. On the shelves of his store, standing next to one another, one may find Shimon Peres' The Struggle for Peace, Benjamin Netanyahu's A Place Among the Nations, Bill and Monica -- the Starr Report and Gamal Abdul Nasser's The Revolution. The best-selling book in the shop over the last few weeks has been a volume by the poet Mahmoud Darwish. Amer relates to the phenomenon pointed to by Smooha: "I have many Christian friends who have left the country for Europe, and there are many who are saying now that if the situation does not calm down, they will not stay here. I personally fear a blow to the delicate fabric between the two communities."

Surprisingly, Amer, who considers himself secular, does not completely identify with either side. "What did the Christians do?" He responds to the question as to who in his opinion is guilty of the deterioration in the situation in Nazareth. "I am not against the Waqf," he quickly makes clear, "but the matter here is not clear to many people. If it is Waqf land, then let the Waqf have it. But who is to decide? The solution must be found through dialog between the two sides. It only makes matters worse when the whole world starts interfering," he concludes.

The municipality and its leaders prefer to remain neutral: "We do not take sides on this matter. Whatever the government decides is acceptable to us." The Islamic Movement, on the other hand, has a clear stance. "No less than one dunam (a quarter of an acre) for the setting up of a mosque," its spokesman proposes as a compromise. One gets the impression after talking with both sides that there is already a compromise and the current argument is not over whether or not a mosque will be built, but about the size of the area on which it will be built.

However, both sides realize that if the negotiations drag on until after the negotiations, the matter may disappear from the public agenda. This particularly worries the municipality, which is trying to prepare for the millennium celebrations. Abu Ahmed's promise to march alongside "our Christian brothers" in the 2000 Christmas celebrations does not seem realistic at the moment.

The vision of the mosque, as as seen by its planner, council member Ahmed Zouabi of United Nazareth also does not exactly ease the situation. Zouabi described it last week to a correspondent from the Washington Post: "Unlike the 10 mosques scattered around Nazareth, this will be a central mosque, built at a cost of $20 million -- which will be raised in the Persian Gulf states. It will have four turrets, with an elevator leading to the central one. At its center will be a laser image in the shape of a half crescent. It will be no less impressive than the Basilica of the Annunciation, and will perhaps even overshadow it." Afterwards, Zouabi noted that "the year 2000 does not only belong to Christians. The Muslims want to feel equal in the celebrations." He adds, "Muslims and Christians always marched together, and will continue to do so."

Sidebar: EACH SIDE HAS ITS OWN EVIDENCE

The dispute revolves around land ownership. The Islamic Movement claims that it is Waqf land, holy ground. The municipality claims that it is state land, under the control of the Israel Lands Authority. Both sides have evidence to prove the justice of their claims.

The municipality bases its claim on a registration formula of the Land Registry from 1943, from which it arises that the land is registered in the name of the High Commissioner, and after Israel's establishment passed into the hands of the municipality. The municipality also claims that before the demolition of a school in the area, it received permission from the Israel Lands Authority to carry out the change it wanted -- the construction of a public square and steps that would lead to the Basilica of the Annunciation.

Officials at the municipality also stress that the Northern District Planning and Construction Committee came down on its side a year and a half ago, when they demanded from it that it issue an administrative demolition order on to the protest tent set up by the Islamic Movement in the disputed area, which quickly turned into a temporary mosque.

The Islamic Movement stresses the close proximity of the land to the grave of Shihab a-Din. The movement also claims that the primary school demolished by the municipality contained a "mihrab", a Muslim prayer area. The Waqf also claims that the "Tobler Plan," a sketch of the city drawn by a German historian which came to light in the book Christians and Muslims in Nazareth by Chad Emmet, proves that in 1868 there was a small mosque in the southern part of the area.

The Islamic Movement claims to possess a letter sent in 1925 by the chairman of the Waqf in Nazareth to the chairman of the Waqf in Jerusalem, in which he asks why they do not annex a school which contains a "mihrab" as Waqf land. The Islamic Movement also possesses religious rulings from figures abroad.

THE DISPUTE IN NAZARETH: TIMETABLE OF EVENTS

October 1995: The Nazareth Municipality demolishes Primary School D in the town center, which had existed since Ottoman days, on the grounds that the buildings were old and structurally unsound. The municipal council decides to establish on the site, next to the Basilica of the Annunciation, a public plaza and garden, as part of the "Nazareth 2000" project. It was also decided to renovate the the grave of Shihab a-Din (who is traditionally considered to be a cousin of Kurdish Saladin Ayyubi, who conquered the Holy Land from the Crusaders for the Muslims).

November 1995: The Islamic Movement distributes leaflets claiming that the municipality demolished the mosque of Shihab a-Din. Movement spokesmen declared that the site was "mihrab" -- an Islamic prayer site -- even though no prayers had been held there for years. A fence separating the grave site and the disputed land was torn down.

December 1997: The Islamic Movement establishes a protest tent on the disputed site. Signs are posted saying, "Shihab a-Din Mosque." Concerns are raised that religious-communal confrontations would break out during the traditional Christmas Eve procession.

January 1998: A war of leaflets between the Waqf and the municipality intensifies. The Interior Ministry approaches the municipality demanding that a demolition order be issued against the temporary mosque. Otherwise, the ministry threatens to do so instead. The court refuses to decide the claims submitted to it and transfers the matter to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. A committee is eventually established called the "Committee of Three," headed by Sharia Appeals Court Qadi Ahmad Natour. The Islamic Movement acts to receive a fatwa from religious leaders abroad in order to pressure the committee. Religious rulings are written by the Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority Akrama Sayyid Sabri; by the head of the Department of Art and Religion at Damascus University, Dr. Muhammad Sayyid al-Butti; by the dean of the Faculty of Sharia Studies at Jordan University, Dr. Muhammad al-Sirtawi; and by the Mufti of Jordan, Sheikh Sayyid al- Hijawi.

April 1998: Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Yigal Bibi writes to Qadi Natour: "Since the matter is being handled by the courts, it is sub judice and I therefore ask that you cease your participation in the committee and involvement in the matter, so as not to harm the judicial process."

September-November 1998: The conflict over the disputed site is at the heart of the municipal election campaign. The campaign is tense and is accompanied by acts of violence. The election results sharpen the tension between Hadash and the Islamic Movement.

January 1999: Contacts to find a solution are held in Ramallah, under the aegis of Yasser Arafat. Representatives from Hadash headed by Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jeraisi, and Islamic Movement leaders Ibrahim Sarsur, Kamel Rian and Salman Abu Ahmed participate. Ultimately, the participants decide to establish a tripartite committee composed of representatives from Hadash, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian Authority.

February 1999: The government condemns the involvement of the Palestinian Authority "in an internal Israeli matter" and proposes that the Israel Lands Authority, Interior Ministry district director Yigal Shahar and Prime Minister's Office adviser for Arab affairs Motti Zakan work out a compromise.

March 1999: The Islamic Movement announces that it has found human bones in a dig at the eastern section of the disputed site and determines that the site is in fact a cemetery and therefore Waqf land.

April 1999: A clash erupts between Muslim youths who pass through the disputed site after midnight Ramadan prayers and Christian youths. Riots spread throughout the town. The National Council of Arab Local Authorities, headed by Muhammad Zidan, establishes a special committee comprising seven local authority leaders with the aim of mediation between the parties. After a week, the forum is expanded to 10. Most of the committee members believe that there is no alternative to establishing a mosque.

The government, led by Tourism Minister Moshe Katzav, begins contacts to find a compromise. Seven compromise proposals are raised and rejected by the Waqf, including one to establish a "small" mosque. The Waqf demands that a mosque at least one dunam large (the disputed area is 1,860 square meters) be established on the site. Katzav rejects the demand. The government establishes a special ministerial committee on the issue of the Nazareth dispute.