Nazareth Walk

NAZARETH WALK

As I began my walk in the city of beautiful and historic Nazareth I put my imagination to work and started to think and create the beautiful city in a different view. I tried to imagine what it would be like today if it were still the Palestinians land and whether or not it would be different today or not. Keeping this somewhat far-fetched idea in my mind, I began my journey that I would call my “Sarha” throughout the streets of Nazareth today. As I looked around me towards everyway of my surroundings I found my attention being focused on all of the people roaming the town as if everything was as it should be. I was standing there trying to determine where I was and where I wanted to set off.

I began to walk down the sidewalk and found an unbelievable fascination in the perfect landscape surrounding me. When I refer to perfect, I mean the trees in the middle of the road separating the cars going back and forth. They were exactly aligned and nearly identical to one another one by one in a row all the way down the street as far as my eyes could go. In between the each tree little were plants with perfect purple colored hairs and leaves and blossoming bulbs. To the sides of me are busy storefronts with people laughing and having fun going on with their daily lives. Of course there was a little old man sitting on the corner of the building trying to grab my attention to sell me something random by screaming "hello" in a very odd Arabic accent.

I walk down the sidewalk a few blocks and saw a large sign that says "Nazareth Illit" to the right of me. By simply translating the word Illit I came up with "Elite" or in other words “VIP”. I could not resist but to explore the area to see why it could have such a name and see if the name represented it’s meaning. I would like to add that the entrance looked almost like you were walking into heaven, simply bliss. To the left and to the right of me identical trees, plants and lush green grass lining the entrance even a beautiful proportionally large fountain. The fountain caught my attention the most so I began to look at it more closely. I sat in the grass right in front of it looking deeply at the designs engraved in the stone. I noticed small rows of the Star of David accented with the color blue. I became a little nervous and stood up only to see my reflection in the water accompanied by an unusually large portrait of the Jewish flag on the floor of the fountains base. I started to reflect on what this image could mean as I looked around at my surroundings even more.

It began to look like a completely different world, a Jewish world. Raja Shehadah wrote, " Europe, and later Zionism, has endeavored to rescue the historical significance of the region in its search for ancient Israel: a search for its own cultural roots which in the process has silenced Palestinian history and relegated it topre history, paving the way for the modern state of Israel to take control not only of the land but also Palestinian time and space. (Pg. 47) I think Nazareth Illit could be considered a settlement because of its inhabitants are majority Jewish and it is designed with its landscape to praise the Jewish nation. Raja wrote " Menachem Begin, The prime minister at the time, announced: settlements [in the occupied territories] is the Soul of Zionism." (Pg. 56) The landscape absolutely looked like it was the soul of Zionism. Still standing next to the fountain at the entrance of the settlement on my left and right and in the front of me as well people were walking, some with their children and some with their companion. It was a different walking that they were doing. The difference was not the passion and the friendly vibes that I saw earlier in the day, but a more quiet and shy walk. Was it the fact of them living on someone else's land or was it the segregation that was way to obvious? Raja wrote, " I was a romantic, striving for some sort of heroic role." (Pg. 64) "I was shackled by the prevailing fear and insecurity." (Pg. 64) "The suffering was more subtle, from having to endure the shame of defeat." (Pg 64) Nazareth Illit brought much fear and insecurity to me because it was an instant feeling as if I don’t belong. The reason is because no matter where I go I can only walk so far until I have to turn around. When will this land be like this? When will it be like it once was? "A Land of the Free"