Nazareth

On Saturday, the IS volunteers travelled north to Nazareth to take part in a tour by the British journalist Jonathan Cook.  Cook began his journalism career in 1988, and has since worked for publications such as The Guardian and The Observer.  In 2001, he moved to Nazareth and started working as a freelance journalist, as well as writing three books about Israel and Palestine. 

Nazareth is a rare choice of base for a foreign correspondent; most choose locations such as Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Ramallah.  Cook’s main interest lies in the experiences of Palestinians outside the Palestinian territories; predominantly those in Israel, whom he believes are often ignored by foreign journalists.  This explains his choice of location, as Nazareth is the capital of the Palestinian minority in Israel. 

The tour showed us around the most significant political and social areas of the city; Cook describes them as ‘alternative tours’, as they focus on politics rather than tourism.  We started at the Basilica of the Annunciation, where we were given an introduction to the area before looking around the Basilica.  After that, we wandered around the Old Town and, after a brief stop for falafel, we drove to see first the remnants of a destroyed Palestinian village, then the Israeli community built on top of it, and finally the graves of the Palestinian residents, accompanied by photographs of the old village. 

View of Nazareth

Cook was able to give us a perspective on the political situation which is few and far between.  We were able to gain a deeper understanding of the situation concerning Palestinians in Israel, which is not a topic many of us had heard a lot about previously.  Alongside this, it was interesting to hear about Israel and Palestine from someone who had observed the division both internally and externally; based in and out of the country.  Cook had a lot to say about the area, and the tour provided us with a lot of information about the experiences of Palestinians living in Israel.