Nazareth Illit
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| Nazareth Illit | |
| Hebrew | נָצְרַת עִלִּית (Natzrat Illit) |
| (Standard) | Naẓerat ʻIllit |
| Arabic | ناصيرات عيليت (Nasirat Illit) or الناصرة العليا (An-Nasira-l-ʕolya) |
| Name meaning | Upper Nazareth |
| Founded in | 1954-56 |
| Government | City (from 1974) |
| Also spelled | Nazerat Illit (officially) |
| District | North |
| Population | 43,900 (2004) |
| Jurisdiction | 29,700 dunams (30 km²) |
| Mayor | Menahem Ariav |
Nazareth Illit (Hebrew: נָצְרַת עִלִּית) is a city in the North District of Israel.
The name in Hebrew means Upper Nazareth, referring to the adjacent and much older city of Nazareth. The town was founded in the 1950s (foundations were laid in 1954, first settlers arrived at 1956) as one of several development towns in the Galilee. It was planned for a predominantly Jewish population, which was to live alongside the predominantly Arab population of Nazareth.
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[edit] Demographics
According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic and religious makeup of the city was 91.0% Jewish and other non-Arabs, 9.0% Arab (2.3% Muslim and 6.7% Christian). In 2001 there were 655 immigrant settlers. See Population groups in Israel.
According to CBS, in 2001 there were 21,000 males and 23,200 females. The population of the city was spread out with 27.5% 19 years of age or younger, 14.8% between 20 and 29, 18.6% between 30 and 44, 18.7% from 45 to 59, 5.3% from 60 to 64, and 15.2% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was -0.4%.
[edit] Income
According to CBS, as of 2000, in the city there were 17,229 salaried workers and 764 are self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker in the city is ILS 4,377, a real change of 6.4% over the course of 2000. Salaried males have a mean monthly wage of ILS 5,373 (a real change of 8.2%) versus ILS 3,388 for females (a real change of 3.9%). The mean income for the self-employed is 6,646. There are 1,337 people who receive unemployment benefits and 5,532 people who receive an income guarantee.
[edit] Education
According to CBS, there are 15 schools and 6,138 students in the city. They are spread out as 12 elementary schools and 3,042 elementary school students, and 5 high schools and 3,096 high school students. 56.8% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001.
[edit] Sport
Hapoel Nazareth Illit is the city's major football team. Having been promoted to the top division for the first time in 2003, the club was later relegated in 2006 to Liga Leumit, the second tier, where they currently play.
The city also hosted several Bnei Sakhnin games during 2005 and 2006 as Sakhnin's Doha Stadium did not meet Ligat ha'Al requirements at the time.
[edit] History
The city was first conceived during the early 1950s in the context of the government policy of "Judaizing the Galilee" with the foundation of several development towns including Karmiel and Beit She'an. This was justified on economic and security grounds, but a specific impetus in the case of Nazareth was the municipal election in 1954, which saw the communist party Maki becoming the largest municipal faction. Shimon Landman, director of the Interior Ministry's Department of Minorities, explained in June 1954,
- The elections in Nazareth not only drew public attention to events in Nazareth and the Arab Galilee and served as a warning of what can be expected in the elections for the third Knesset. It also sparked concern and recurring discussions in the government and the leadership of the two main parties, and led to an acceleration of preparations for a Jewish settlement in Nazareth ...[1]
A parcel of 1,200 dunams of land, about half within the municipal boundaries, was expropriated in 1954, relying on a law that permitted expropriations for public purposes. Protests at this action reached the Supreme Court of Israel, which in 1955 accepted (HCJ 30/55) the government's word that the sole purpose of the land was to erect government facilities. However, it had already been decided that only 109 dunams would be used for that purpose and planning for residential neighborhoods continued. The first dwellings were completed in September 1956 and the first residents moved in later that year.[2]
According to historian Geremy Forman,
- Like other Jewish settlements in the Galilee, an important aim of Upper Nazareth was to ensure Jewish state control and sovereignty in the region. According to IDF Planning Department Director Yuval Ne'eman, the new settlement would "emphasize and safeguard the Jewish character of the Galilee as a whole, and ... demonstrate state sovereignty to the Arab population more than any other settlement operation." More specifically, Upper Nazareth was meant to address the challenge perceived as emanating from the all-Arab city of Nazareth. It would do this not by achieving a Jewish majority within the city of Nazareth itself, but rather by quickly evolving from a neighborhood into a city and eventually overpowering Arab Nazareth numerically, economically, and politically. According to Northern Military Governor Colonel Mikhael Mikhael, the final aim of the settlement was to "swallow up" the Arab city through "growth of the Jewish population around a hard-core group" and "the transfer of the center of gravity of life from Nazareth to the Jewish neighborhood."[3]
Initially the settlement was referred to as the "Jewish neighborhood" of Nazareth, then as Kiryat Natzeret (the Nazareth campus). The name Nazareth Illit was adopted in 1958. In 1960 the part within the municipal boundaries of Nazareth was excised from Nazareth, and in the following year Nazareth Illit was endowed with the municipal status of local council.[4]
[edit] Sister cities
San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
Leverkusen, Germany
Klagenfurt, Austria
Győr, Hungary
Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Saint-Étienne, France
Alba Iulia, Romania
Kikinda, Serbia
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Nazareth Illit municipal website
- Satellite image of the city from Google Earth
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