 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
||
Palestinians of Nazareth: In the Light of History May 9, 2005
Nazareth is situated in the heart of lower Galilee. Seated amid seven hills that rise above the plain of Marj ibn ‘Amer, it marks the beginning of a hillier rural region, stretching north towards Lebanon and Syria. Despite being relatively small, Nazareth was accorded worldwide renown as the home of Jesus, and as such, housed large educational and medical establishments funded by the international church. The British administration made their district headquarters in Nazareth. The importance of Nazareth in the popular Western Christian imagination had not escaped the attention of the various Zionist institutions that were planning the occupation of Palestine. Prior to the war, “cleansing” or the transfer of Arabs from any potential Jewish state was deemed necessary. However, it was vital that minimal damage was done to the international face of the new Jewish state.1 “There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Arabs of] Bethlehem, Nazareth, and old Jerusalem,” wrote Yosef Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund Lands Department, and a key player in the planning and development of Jewish settlement both before and after the establishment of the Jewish state.2 This diary entry was written eight years before the main expulsion began. It clearly shows that it was no accident that the population of Nazareth was spared expulsion. By mid May, thousands of refugees had poured into Nazareth. Some had been taken in by friends and relatives or were able to rent spare rooms, but many were housed in makeshift fashion in the halls of the local religious establishments or in vacated public buildings. No preparations had been made for the desperate need for relief and assistance.3 As 1948 progressed, the hostilities in Galilee increased. By the end of March, 1948, financial concerns led to the flight of around 75,000 urban middle- and upper-class Palestinians from Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem (a high proportion were Christians). While many of those with assets in Lebanon or further afield left Palestine, others joined relatives in urban centers such as Nazareth or Nablus in the east, which were deemed safer.4 Refugees from Galilean villages had begun to flee to Nazareth, counting on the importance of the town to provide relative safety. The majority of wealthier urban refugees who had family and homes outside the Jewish state, later left to join their families. The internal refugees today are predominantly from the Muslim rural working classes, who did not have any viable financial option or life outside the new Jewish state.
The capture of Nazareth was swift, with little resistance. Ben-Gurion gave specific orders that there should be no looting or destruction of houses, as the world would be watching. Morris says that there was talk of an order to destroy Nazareth from the senior military, but this was overturned.5 Relatively few Nazarenes fled, but initially, up to 20,000 refugees joined them inside the town. However, after a short time, some refugees from nearby towns such as Kafr Kanna and Shafa’amr were allowed to return.6 By April 8, 1949, months after the occupation, 5,222 refugees were still in Nazareth and 7,334 were residing in the surrounding villages.7 Waleed Khleif was a small boy at the time of the occupation of Nazareth. Today, he still lives in the same house, close to Mary’s Well. As a small boy, he would sneak out of the house during those first days to run errands for his father, who thought a boy would be safer and less conspicuous out in the open. I remember seeing people on the streets, in buildings, sitting on the floor. We knew something terrible had happened to them, but as Nazareth people, we were not free ourselves to find out what was going on.8 Khleif recalls that his whole neighborhood (Nazarenes, not refugees) was forced by the occupying forces to stand in the sun in an open yard while soldiers teased them and refused to let them go to the toilet or fetch water. This was the “safe haven” of Nazareth that refugees had fled to. Nazareth 2000 Nazareth … a place that is neither a village nor a city. It does not have the intimacy of a village, or the scope of a city. A place, just a place, which has lost its connection to the fields, the groves, and the smell of the earth, and which has also lost its connection to the clubs, the cinema, and the city square.9 Nazareth. In a strange way, it seems that years of neglect and lack of investment have done more to kill the spirit of the capital of Galilee than years of bloodshed and soldiers have succeeded in doing in Nablus and Ramallah. It is an odd type of depression that seizes hold of you: Visiting Bethlehem under curfew, Nablus under siege by settlements, or Qalqilya surrounded by the wall, you feel that people at least know what they are fighting for, a vision for the future—however far away that may be. Sometimes, it feels like Nazareth has forgotten how to dream. The Cinema in the Old Suq, Nazareth, September 8, 2003
We were drinking tea one evening in a small cinema-cafe created in a deserted grain house in the old Nazareth suq. The last cinema in Nazareth disappeared several years ago, and until recently, Nazareth folk who wished to see a film on the big screen had to traipse up the hill to the multiplex in Natzeret `Illit. Earlier this year, a group of young professionals, among them Ziad from Saffuriyya, decided to try to realize at least some of their dreams in an old building belonging to a relative. These Nazarenes, all in their late 20s, are some of the few who have returned after studying abroad. It takes some commitment to return for those who have the opportunity to be away. The project now has a cafe, shows films on the weekends, and hosts cultural political events in the form of art shows, music, and discussions. Sitting at a small cafe table, Abu `Arab isn’t quite sure where to start: As head of the Saffuriyya Heritage Association, he has countless stories about dispossession, decades of struggle, recent commemorative events, and campaigning within the community. In the early days, the people of Saffuriyya who remained as internal refugees were dotted all over Nazareth and the surrounding area. “We were not thinking or knowing what would happen.”10 The 1948 Palestinians went from a majority in a British-ruled colony to a minority in a Jewish-settled state in a matter of weeks and months. Thousands lost their homes. The effect of this trauma cannot be underestimated. Those who were left behind were largely fellahin (peasants) and mossaharin (farmers) with little political awareness and few links to political organizations. Most Palestinian leaders and the educated elite had become external refugees under the Nakba, and people were fearful of forming new groups. In this climate of fear, people did not openly talk about politics. “Anyone who was just listening to the speeches of [Gamal] Abdul Nasser [of Egypt] on the radio was informed on. The Israelis would send for you.”11 Fear of informers successfully stifled most early political activity. The atmosphere was “Don’t talk about Saffuriyya, forget about Saffuriyya, forget your demands.” Everyone was under suspicion. So if somebody says that Palestinians who managed to stay in their homeland while the Jewish state of Israel was literally forced upon them are all collaborators—remember to put them straight. 1- For examination of development of transfer policy pre-1948 see Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948, (Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992). 2- Yosef Weitz, Yomani Ve’igrotai Labanim [My Diary and Letters to the Children], Vol. II, p.181, entry for December 20, 1940, cited by Benny Morris in The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) p.27. 3- Elias Srouji, “The Last Days of ‘Free Galilee’: Memories of 1948,” Journal of Palestine Studies 33, no.1 (Fall 2003) p.57. 4- Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, p.30. 5- Ibid., p. 201. 6- Ibid, p. 202. 7- Cited in Nur Masalha, The Politics of Denial, (London: Pluto, 2003) p. 173, n. 16. 8- Waleed Khlief, interview with researcher, April 11, 2003, Nazareth home. 9- Raif Zraiq, “Through Arab Eyes,” News from Within, Vol. 15, no. 8, (August 1999). 10- Interview with Abu ‘Arab, Saffuriyya refugee, interviewed in Nazareth September 8, 2003. 11- Interview with Abu ‘Arab, Saffuriyya refugee, interviewed in Nazareth September 8, 2003.
|
