Nazareth

===British Mandate period===
[[File:Abbud08C.jpg|thumb|260px|Nazareth, postcard by [[Karimeh Abbud]], ca 1925]]
[[File:Nazareth, by Fadil Saba 1.jpg|thumb|260px|Nazareth, postcard by [[:de:Fadil Saba]], ca 1925]]
[[File:AN AERIAL PHOTO OF NAZARETH. צילום אויר של העיר נצרת.D332-053.jpg|thumb|260px|Nazareth, 1937]]
The [[United Kingdom]] gained control of Palestine in 1917, the same year of the [[Balfour Declaration]], which promised British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In the years preceding and following the declaration, Jewish immigration to Palestine had been increasing. Representatives of Nazareth opposed the [[Zionist movement]], sending a delegation to the 1919 [[Palestine Arab Congress#First congress: Jerusalem, 1919|First Palestine Arab Congress]] and issuing a letter of protest in 1920 that condemned the movement while also proclaiming solidarity with the [[Yishuv|Jews of Palestine]]. Politically, Nazareth was becoming further involved in the growing [[Palestinian nationalism|Palestinian nationalist movement]]. In 1922, a Muslim-Christian Association was established in the town, largely sponsored by the Muslim al-Zu'bi family. A consistent and effective united Palestinian Arab religious front proved difficult to establish and alternative organizations such as the [[Supreme Muslim Council]]'s Organization of Muslim Youth and the National Muslim Association were established in Nazareth later in the 1920s.<ref name="Emmett39">Emmett 1995, p. 39.</ref> in 1922 there had been a small population of 58 Jews and Jewish families living in Nazareth.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine+Census+(1922)#page/n8/mode/1up|title=Palestine Census ( 1922)|website=archive.org}}</ref>

Nazareth was relatively slow to modernize. While other towns already had wired electricity, Nazareth delayed its electrification until the 1930s and invested instead in improving its water supply system.<ref>Shamir, Ronen (2013) ''Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine''. Stanford: Stanford University Press</ref> This included adding two reservoirs at the northwestern hills and several new [[cistern]]s.<ref name="Emmett39"/> By 1930, a church for the Baptist denomination, a municipal garden at Mary's Well and a police station based in Zahir al-Umar's [[Seraya]] had been established and the Muslim Sharqiya Quarter had expanded.<ref name="Emmett37"/>

In the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|1936–1939 Arab Revolt]], Nazareth played a minor role, contributing two rebel commanders out of 281 rebel commanders active in the country. The two were Nazareth native and Christian Fu'ad Nassar and Nazareth resident and [[Indur]] native Tawfiq al-Ibrahim. The nearby villages of [[Saffuriya]] and [[al-Mujaydil]] played a more active military role, contributing nine commanders between them. The leaders of the revolt sought to use Nazareth as a staging ground to protest the [[Peel Commission|British proposal]] to include the [[Galilee]] into a future Jewish state. On 26 September 1937, the British district commissioner of the Galilee, [[Lewis Yelland Andrews]], was assassinated in Nazareth by local rebels.<ref name="Emmett40">Emmett 1995, p. 40.</ref>

By 1946, the municipal boundary of Nazareth had been enlarged and new neighborhoods, namely Maidan, Maslakh, Khanuq and Nimsawi, were established. New homes were established in existing quarters and the town still had an abundance of orchards and agricultural fields. Two cigarette factories, a tobacco store, two cinemas and a tile factory had been established, significantly boosting Nazareth's economy.<ref name="Emmett37"/> A new police station was built on Nazareth's southernmost hill,<ref name="Emmett37"/> while the police station in the Seray had been converted into Nazareth's municipal headquarters. Watchtowers were also erected on some of the hilltops around the town. Other new or expanded government offices included a headquarters for the district commissioner at the former Ottoman military barracks, and offices for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Survey and Settlement.<ref name="Emmett39"/>

Nazareth was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the [[1947 UN Partition Plan]]. In the months leading up to the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], the town became a refuge for Arab-Palestinians fleeing the urban centers of [[Tiberias]], [[Haifa]] and [[Baysan]] before and during the [[Haganah]]'s [[1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine|capture]] of those cities on 18 April 22 April and 12 May 1948, respectively.<ref>Emmett 1995, pp. 40–41.</ref>