Nof HaGalil is a city in the Northern District of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

with a population of . Nof HaGalil was founded in 1957 as Nazareth Illit (; ), it was planned as a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish town overlooking the city of

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

and the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the ), or Marj Ibn Amir (), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands o ...

.A City with Character

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In 1963, it was declared a local council, and in 1974, it formally gained the status of a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. Following the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the city saw a large influx of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet republics, which doubled the city's population and made it one of the centers of Russian Jewish culture in Israel. In recent decades, the city also became a

mixed city In Israel, the mixed cities (, ) or mixed towns are the eight cities with a significant number of both Israeli Jews and Arab citizens of Israel, Israeli Arabs. The eight mixed Jewish-Arab cities, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statisti ...

following significant

Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory ...

migration; today 29% of the city's population is Arab, although they depend on neighboring Nazareth for many services as the municipality has refused to allow the building of any churches, mosques or Arabic-speaking schools.

History

The establishment of Nazareth Illit was conceived in the early 1950s, when

development town Development towns (, ''Ayarat Pitu'ah'') were new settlements built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing for a large influx of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from Europe and other new immig ...

s such as Karmiel and

Beit She'an Beit She'an ( '), also known as Beisan ( '), or Beth-shean, is a town in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level. Beit She'an is believed to ...

were founded. There were economic and security reasons for developing a town in this region, but according to Shimon Landman, director of the Interior Ministry's Department of Minorities, the

municipal elections in 1954, in which the Israel communist party Maki became the largest faction, were a source of concern.G. Forman: Military Rule, Political Manipulation, and Jewish Settlement: Israeli Mechanisms for Controlling Nazareth in the 1950s, ''The Journal of Israeli History'', Vol. 25, No. 2 (2006) 335-359. A parcel of 1,200

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land, about half formerly within the municipal boundaries of Nazareth, was allocated in 1954, relying on a law that permitted expropriations for public purposes. Protests at this action reached the

Supreme Court of Israel The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

, 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. The director of the IDF Planning Department,

Yuval Ne'eman Yuval Ne'eman (; 14 May 1925 – 26 April 2006) was an Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. He was Minister of Science and Development in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was the President of Tel Aviv University ...

, stated that the town would "safeguard the Jewish character of the Galilee as a whole, and... demonstrate state sovereignty to the Arab population more than any other settlement operation." The historian Geremy Forman wrote that Nazareth Illit was meant to "overpower Nazareth numerically, economically, and politically." Initially the city was referred to as the "Jewish neighborhood" of Nazareth, then as ''Kiryat Natzeret''. The name ''Nazareth Illit'' (Upper Nazareth) was adopted in 1958. In 1961, Nazareth Illit was recognized as a municipal local council. In 2019 the city was renamed Nof HaGalil (Hebrew: , ''lit.'' View of the Galilee).

Development plans

In 2021, seven housing projects were under construction in Nof HaGalil. Construction has begun on the Haifa–Nazareth Light Rail which will pass through Nof HaGalil, with 7 stations planned throughout the city. The development of a large municipal park is nearing completion. It includes a petting zoo, an ecological lake, a planetarium, an astronomical observatory, a skating rink, an extreme zip-line course, a musical park, a botanical garden, and an amphitheater. A new government complex is also under construction and there are plans for the expansion of three commercial centers and a hi-tech park. It has been reported that while the city's Arab population grew in recent years, the municipality has refused to allow the building of any churches, mosques or Arabic-speaking schools.

Demographics

According to CBS, in 2014 the ethnic and religious makeup of the city was 64.4%

ish and other non-Arabs and 21.6%

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

(7.2%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and 14.4%

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

). In the 1990s, Nazareth Illit was the fastest developing city in the country with a growth rate of nearly 70 percent. Newcomers included new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and South America, as well as young couples. In 2012, Arabs accounted for 17 percent of the city's 40,000 residents. In recent years, the city has seen an influx of Bnei Menashe immigrants. 1,225 Bnei Menashe have now settled there, with 700 arriving in 2021 alone. The mayor, , has been an ardent supporter of the Bnei Menashe community moving into the city.

Economy

The Strauss Group chocolate factory in the city's industrial zone employs over 600 workers.

Education

In 2010, the city had 12 elementary schools and two high schools. In 2019, after a successful school fundraising, a scientific and ecological

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

was set up on a 500 square meters site in th
Atzmon elementary school
The students of Atzmon not only grow vegetables and fruits, but also invent new varieties and experiment with the scientific process involved in their development. A new high school for religious boys opened in 2010 and the Yeshivat Hesder of Maalot, which combines army service with Torah study, opened a branch there. The city also has a regional engineering college, Nof HaGalil Technology College. Although Nof Hagalil have four Arabic-speaking private

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

s, its municipality has refused to open any Arab schools, in order to discourage continued Arab immigration to the city.This Israeli City Has 25% Arab Residents, but Won't Open a School for Them

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

Sports

Hapoel Nof HaGalil is the city's major

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club. The city's other football club, F.C. Nazareth Illit, plays in

Liga Gimel Liga Gimel (, lit. ''League C'') is, since 2009, the fifth and bottom division of Israeli football league system, Israeli Football League. From Liga Alef and downwards, including Liga Gimel, each league is separated by region. History Liga Gimel ...

. The city's main football stadium is Green Stadium. In addition to hosting matches of the city's two football teams, the stadium hosted in the past

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

matches of Hapoel Acre and Bnei Sakhnin whose stadiums did not meet

. During 2013–14 the stadium also hosted Hapoel Afula matches. The city's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team, Hapoel Nof HaGalil, plays in the IBA fourth tier, Liga Alef. The city's

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

team, Hapoel Nof HaGalil, plays at the Israeli Table-tennis Premier league. The team won both the championship and the state cup at the 2011–12 season.

Twin towns — sister cities

Nof HaGalil is twinned with: *

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (), usually called simply Tucumán, is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Argentin ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

* Klagenfurt,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

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Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

* Birobidzhan,

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Notable people

* Dudu Aouate (born 1977), professional footballer * Aya Korem (born 1980), singer/songwriter *

Naum Prokupets Naum Leybovich Prokupets (; born March 20, 1948) is a Moldovan-born Israeli former sprint canoeist who competed for the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. He is Jewish. Biography Naum Prokupets was born in Basarabeasca, a small town in Mold ...

(born 1948), Moldovan-born Israeli former sprint canoeist * Hisham Sulliman (born 1978), actor

Notes

References

External links

Nof HaGalil municipal website

Unofficial city news website «From Nazareth Illit»
{{Authority control Development towns 1957 establishments in Israel Cities in Northern District (Israel) Populated places established in 1957 Mixed Israeli communities Arab Christian communities in Israel