Nir Rosen ponders the implications (h/t Max Fisher)
From Ma’an News, 2010:
The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative.
Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to Nazareth, where Christians believe Jesus spent much of his life. It has a sizable Arab Christian minority, as does mostly Muslim Nazareth itself.
“The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative,” Mayor Shimon Gapso told AFP.
“Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen — not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,” he said of the northern Israeli town.
“Nazareth is right next door and they can do what they want there,” he said.
His decision angered the town’s Arab and Christian minority, who accused him of racism.
“The racism of not putting a tree up is nothing compared to the real racism that we experience here,” said Aziz Dahdal, a 35-year-old Christian resident of Nazareth Illit.
“When we asked the mayor to put up a Christmas tree in the Arab neighbourhoods of Nazareth Illit he said this is a Jewish town, not a mixed town,” said Shukri Awawdeh, a Muslim Arab member of the town council.
Awawdeh said there were 10,000 Arabs, most of them Christian in the town and there was also a large community of Christian Russian immigrants.
Update:
Turns out the Ma’an News item is a year old, which we failed to state originally. Apologies! The story has lately been recirculated on the net, which is how we grabbed it.
And: have you ever seen a more jolly Christmas greeting? Benjamin Netanyahu uses the holiday to thank Christians for their support of Israel and to make a tourism pitch:
Thanks for this and reminding us about Nir Rosen. One honest and brave individual.
Christmas trees provocative…hmm
It looks like Christmas trees, innocent, lovely , beautifully decorated, enjoyed by all kids, and many adults symbols of joy, hope and peace on earth ,are becoming very dangerous , provocative ideas that must be removed , destroyed.
” NO Christmas tree in my town. I’m a mayor, this is MY town. I own it. I built it .
I pay everybody to live there, and I make ALL decisions.
My town, my castle. Don’t like it?? Move somewhere else. ”
I’ve just read about the Christmas tree placed on the border between South and North Korea. North Korea has the same reactions like a mayor of Nazareth Illit
They are not happy that people from their country may look at a huge, lit up with thousands lights tower that resembles Christmas tree.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16129633
Somebody should ask Michelle Buchman , a christian zionist, what’s her opinion about it??
“I mean, hmm, hmm, I guess , this should be resolved by people living in that community. What can I say?”
— But Mrs Buchman ,you are a Christian, (at least you claim that you are) ,don’t you find mayor’s decision offensive and racists?
“Hmm, Hmm, uuu, aahhh. Again this problem should be resolved by people who are living in that community? ”
–So Mrs Buchman, do you agree with mayor’s decision or not??
I mean, hm, hm, I’m not a mayor of that town, and I don’t know the situation,
I don’t feel like I have the right to say anything in that matter.”
–So, do yo agree or not??
“I said , the problem should be resolved by people who are living in that community.”
–What would YOU do if YOU were a mayor of Nazareth Illit??
“I ‘m not a mayor of Nazarteh Illit, so I can not tell….
And stop asking me those dumb questions, I’m done with that. They know how to spoil my mood……I don’t know what to think. I was not told what to think.
Happy now??..Next…….”
But this isn’t the first year christmas trees have been banned right? I thought I remembered this from last year as well…..
Not sure what all the fuss is about: Christmas trees having nothing to do with Nazareth, Jesus or Christianity.
That being said…
>> “When we asked the mayor to put up a Christmas tree in the Arab neighbourhoods of Nazareth Illit he said this is a Jewish town, not a mixed town,” said Shukri Awawdeh, a Muslim Arab member of the town council.
Now this is something to get upset about. Towns in Israel are – or should be – Israeli towns. Shame on the mayor of Nazareth Illit for failing to “humanize ‘the Other'” and “make ‘better wheels'”.
And lucky for the non-Jewish Israeli citizens of Nazareth Illit that they’re too far from the ’67 border to be bureaucratically cleansed from their country of Israel.