In Nazareth, in northern Israel, yesterday, suddenly, a UFO appeared out of nowhere. Big. White. Shaped like an airplane but somewhat chubby. He was motionless in the sky for hours. And a neighbor in the middle of the street explained: “It is an army balloon, it looks in the direction of Lebanon and carries a radar that tracks any threat.”
It was the Sky Dew, the balloon that the Israeli Defense Forces launched in 2022. It detects enemy drones and missiles. And yesterday was a day with many, because Hizbullah fulfilled his threat and launched fifty projectiles against Israel in a single morning. The pro-Iran militia says it was only its “preliminary response” to the death in Beirut of Hamas number two, Saleh al Aruri. The war tension in the region takes another step forward three months after the surprise attack by Hamas against Israel.
The north of Israel is known to be surrounded by fires. Beyond Hizbullah, a Shiite group, Sunni groups also fight, for example. And in Nazareth people live differently from the rest of the country.
In Nazareth you see stickers with the Palestinian flag on the walls and benches as is not the case in many Israeli cities. In Nazareth the commercial signs are written first in Arabic and then in Hebrew or English, as is not the case in many Israeli cities. 70% of the 80,000 Nazarenes are Muslims and speak Arabic, and the main minority are Christians, who, as Mikil Zadun indicates, are in their thirties, tall, corpulent, dark-skinned, who sports a carefully trimmed beard and wears black sports clothing. Like many others in the city, “we are 20-25% and we speak in Arabic.”
It is, in fact, the municipality where there are the most Muslims and Christians in all of Israel.
Zadun, who works behind the counter of a grocery store like those that almost no longer exist in Spain, says that in Nazareth there are no problems between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Zaldún complains, above all, that because of the war “tourists no longer come.”
In Nazareth the muezzin's call to prayer coincides with the bells of the Basilica of the Annunciation. And in this city, which is known for being the capital of the Israeli Arabs, when you ask Muslims or Christians, they worry, above all, the northern border and Hezbollah.
Nur Luman, 22, is Muslim and wears striking jeans that are different colors on each leg. She believes that today, in Nazareth “there are fewer problems than in Tel Aviv and other cities further south” between the different communities. “But there is fear of attacks on the northern border,” she continues.
María Eyady, 46 years old and of Filipino origin like many Christians in the city, explains that “I was a Christian and now I am a Muslim, I converted when I got married,” and by living both confessions closely, she says that she can assure that the war of Gaza “has affected. There is a feeling of sympathy for the number of deaths in Gaza. But she lives it day by day and tries to get back to the routine. “Between Muslims and Christians there is a good relationship and respect and also a shared fear of the war in the north.”
The relationship with the local minority that is the majority in the country, the Jews, however deserves a separate note: “The Jews live in their special neighborhoods. They don't live here. It is not like what happens in Haifa, where they all live together.” He also complains that while a Jewish neighborhood has resources, in Nazareth there are hardly any playgrounds, there is a lack of order and cleanliness.
In Nazareth, which like Bilbao is a city sunk between mountains, there are numerous urban defects that are difficult to see in other parts further south of the country. In Nazareth even the market resembles the dense and somewhat chaotic markets that abound in Palestinian territory.
Muslims “have nothing to celebrate,” confesses a resident of the east of the town who is lying at the entrance to his small workshop when asked during the Christmas holidays. But neither do Christians, even if it is Three Kings' Day, since only a small nativity scene and a solitary Christmas tree next to the cave where, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary lived, in the Basilica of the Annunciation, remember them.
Alan Akleh is an Orthodox Christian, a member of the council of the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, and as he speaks he points to a building next to it where plastics are piled up: “You see, that was the largest Christmas tree in the entire Holy Land. But not this year. We have done the minimum to ask for peace. Here we all get along more or less well, but many people are dying in Gaza, many children and women. Then there is also a shared feeling of threat for what may come.” He refers to Lebanon.
Nazareth, the Israeli Arab capital, appears as close to Gaza as it is far from the actions and pretensions of Hizbullah that the noise of military aircraft that is heard intermittently in the background insists on putting on the table.
