Day 6—October 18
Nazareth and Sea of Galilee
Leaving St. George's again and driving north to the Sea of Galilee, we passed Liftah, an abandoned Arab village on one side of a valley near Jerusalem. We also drove through an area that Issa pointed out had seen fierce fighting in 1948, when the Israelis were trying to keep the route open between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Israelis have left rusted military vehicles along the highway as a reminder of the sacrifices the Jewish people had to make to win their state.
On the way up the coast, we passed what Issa said was the only Arab village left along the coast, called Gesar al Zarka. It was crumbling and rundown in comparison to the sparkling modern Israeli towns nearby. Related photos
We visited several religious sites around the Sea of Galilee, including the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount, the Church of Loaves and Fishes, and St. Peter’s house at Capernaum. We had lunch at a restaurant by the Sea that served St. Peter’s fish, which is a type of trout found in the Sea of Galilee. A man stopped Issa in the parking lot of one of the churches to ask if he would bring the tour group to his restaurant, which, like many others these days, sees few customers. Issa said he felt bad for the man, but that he couldn’t very well take us to eat lunch at all of the many restaurants where business is suffering. Related photos
Arab Association for Human Rights
After lunch we met with Muhammad Zeidan of the Arab Association for Human Rights in Nazareth, an organization which focuses on the rights of Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens. Mr. Zeidan reported that there are currently around 3 million Palestinian refugees around the world, 150,000 of which ended up inside the borders of Israel after the 1948 war, later becoming citizens. These refugees were referred to as “internally displaced” persons, and today make up 25% of the Palestinian population of Israel (250,000 out of one million).
The Israeli Absentee Property Law of 1950 gave possession of refugee property to Israeli “custodians” until the refugees’ status could be resolved. The internally displaced Palestinians were declared “present absentees” (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and were not allowed to return to their homes. Mr. Zeidan says that this was in part because the Jewish citizens of the new state coveted much of the Palestinians' property for their own communities.
Palestinians within Israel lived under military rule until 1966, and experienced restrictions on their movement, work, education, and health care. They were forbidden to form political parties or stage demonstrations. There were two separate judicial systems within Israel during this time—civilian courts for the Jews, and military courts for the Palestinians. More than 60% of Palestinian-owned land within Israel was confiscated during this time.
Military rule for Palestinian Israelis was abolished in 1966 and everyone in Israel is now subject to civilian laws, but discrimination still remains. Mr. Zeidan listed four main categories of discrimination facing Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens:
Mr. Zeidan reports that participation in the political system by Israeli Arabs has been declining, as they feel it is becoming more difficult for them. As reasons, he cites the growing talk among both major political parties of “transfer”, the power given to the Israeli Committee of Electors to ban political parties and candidates from running for office if they are deemed “terrorist”, the 25 police investigations of the 10 Arab Knesset members, and the beatings of 7 Arab Knesset members by police. Laws discriminating against Arabs have been passed recently, making it easier to openly discuss “transfer”.
After Mr. Zeidan left for another meeting, Mahmoud Yazbak, a professor at Haifa University and a member of the Committee of Martyrs, spoke to us about the thirteen Israeli Arabs killed by Israeli police during demonstrations following the outbreak of the second intifada in October of 2002. Professor Yazbak’s nephew was one of those killed in the demonstrations. He said the Arabs didn’t realize the IDF was intentionally using lethal force against them for several days, until 13 were dead and over 600 injured, as they had assumed the first few killings were isolated incidents. Some of those killed had been attacked by Jews and were defending themselves when police shot them.
The Israeli Arabs asked the government to investigate the killings, but Barak at first tried to avoid a serious investigation. However, he needed Arab votes in the upcoming elections, and so finally opened an investigation, but didn’t apologize to the Arabs until three days before the elections were held. The investigation is still continuing today, but as of yet no findings have been reported.
Israeli Arabs feel that they are not “real” citizens. Professor Yazbak cited a few examples of the pervasiveness of the discrimination against Israeli Arabs, such as the fact that while 14% of Haifa University students are Arab, only 2-3% of the student bodies of other Israeli universities are Arab; there are only 23 Arab professors in the six research universities in Israel, even though hundreds have PhDs; and there are no Arab pilots on El Al airlines. Dr. Yazbak says that Arab professors in Israeli universities are afraid to speak out on Palestinian human rights issues. Related photos
After our meeting at the Arab Association for Human Rights,
we drove to the Church of the Annunciation, built in 1965 on the ruins of a
Crusader Church. The House of Mary is
said to be inside the church and the House of Joseph is nearby. We checked into St. Margaret’s
Hostel for
the night, a beautiful Episcopalian guesthouse located high on a hilltop
overlooking Nazareth. Related
photos