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Friday April 9, 1999

Religious rioting ends over Nazareth mosque

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- After two days of violence in Nazareth, Mayor Ramez Jeraise has agreed to let a mosque be built next to the C
A mediator who brokered an agreement between the Israeli-Arab mayor and Muslim leaders made the announcement Monday night.

Officials in the Galilee city had envisioned the area as a Venetian-style plaza for Christian pilgrims. The church was built over the site that Christians traditionally believe held Mary's home and where an angel heralded the birth of Jesus. The church is the holiest Christian site in Israel's largest Arab town:

The agreement, which came after at least a dozen people were injured on Easter Sunday and Monday in Christian-Muslim violence, was intended by Israeli-Arab leaders to calm tempers in Nazareth and prevent similar flare-ups elsewhere.

Christian leaders seemed dismayed by the situation and, in an unprecedented move, patriarchs of the major Christian communities, meeting in Jerusalem on Monday night, decided to close their churches in Nazareth Tuesday and Wednesday to protest "the fact that numerous Christians were injured and insulted" during the violence.

The patriarchs protested over what they termed "the inadequate measures" taken by the authorities to ensure safety.

The center of Nazareth was shut down Monday by a general strike called as a show of strength by the Islamic movement.

Helmeted riot police urged residents over loudspeakers to remain indoors as hundreds of Muslim activists gathered at a downtown protest tent set up at the site where the movement wants to erect the mosque, according the Associated Press.

Sammy Smooha, a Haifa University sociologist, said that tensions between the two communities are not limited to the mosque issue. Their differences have been mounting for several years and are likely to persist, he added.

Muslims, who comprise a majority in Nazareth, are bitter because they don't enjoy economic and political power reflecting their numerical strength, he said.

"The Muslims are not doing very well socioeconomically and in terms of jobs, compared with the Christians," Smooha said. "The elite is mostly Christian, [but] the Christians have lost their majority due to a low birth-rate and emigration."

In city elections last fall, Jeraise, a Christian from the Israeli-Arabs secular Hadash Party, was elected as mayor. But he found himself unable to form a coalition because of the Islamic Movement's control of the city council.

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