This hilltop city has placid parks, broad avenues, low crime, a fancy mall and trash collection three times a week — all very nice and neat, and by design, slightly dull. But not these days.
Over the past few years, well-to-do Arab Israelis, both Muslim and Christian, drove their minivans 10 minutes up the hill from the ancient, overcrowded nearly all-Arab city of Nazareth and snapped up some sweet but pricey five-bedroom, four-bath houses.
Many of the homes are worth a half-million dollars or more, and Arab citizens of Israel now count for 18 percent of the 50,000 residents in “Upper Nazareth,” as it is translated in English.
They are welcome here, says the mayor, as long as they remember one very important rule.
“This is a Jewish city,” said Shimon Gafsou of his adopted home town, “now and forever.”
To be more specific: “I would rather cut off my right arm than build an Arab school,” the mayor said in an interview on his terrace at city hall.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to halt strikes on the Ukrainian capital...
Microsoft signed a contract worth more than $100m with the Israeli government in 2024, according to...
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned international airlines and insurers on Tuesday that Russian airspace is becoming “completely...
