The New American
A Christian resident of the Israeli city of Nazareth has come up with a plan to erect a 100-foot-tall statute of the community's most famous native son, Jesus Christ. The proposed monument, which would reportedly be similar to the one that towers over the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, is the idea of Bishara Shlayan, a merchant seaman who, reported Fox News, “has seen the demographics of Nazareth change considerably in recent years, with the Christian community becoming a minority while the Muslim population has grown to 70 percent of the 80,000 residents of the northern Israeli town.”
Shlayan, a Christian Arab, told Fox that “slowly, but surely, the Christian identity in Nazareth is beginning to disappear,” pointing to signs that festoon the city's main square with decidedly non-Christian slogans such as “There is no power but Allah.”
A group of Christians led by Shlayan has asked for permission from the Israeli government to erect the statue atop what is known locally as Mount Precipice, supposedly the locale, mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 4:29-30, where a mob of locals attempted to throw Jesus off a hill — but were prevented from doing so when Jesus, “passing through the midst of them, went his way.”
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Christian Israeli-Arab wants to build Rio-style Jesus statue near Nazareth
THE ‘CHRIST the Redeemer’ statue in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: REUTERS
Bishara Shlayan, a Christian Arab from Nazareth, is hoping to build a huge
statue of Jesus on Mount Precipice, near his home city.Shlayan told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that he has already begun fund-raising for the project and that he is getting positive feedback from the Israeli Arab Christian community as well as some Jews.
He sees the statue as being similar to but larger than the huge Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Shlayan is also looking to found a Christian Arab political party, which he says is still being sorted out, but has settled on the name “Bnei Habrit [Allies of the Covenant], the Christian party of Israel.”
The party would support Israel as a Jewish state and national or army service for Arabs.
“I created the Bnei Habrit party and now I have created the Diglei Habrit [Flags of the Covenant] organization,” in order to carry out the statue project, he said.
Mount Precipice, also known as Mount Kedumim, is believed by some to be the place where the people of Nazareth attempted to push Jesus off the mountain after rejecting him as the messiah. In the end he was able to jump off and disappeared, according to Christian tradition.
When Shlayan was in Jerusalem a month ago, he said he met Tourism Minister Uzi Landau by chance and asked him about the statue idea. Shlayan says that Landau said, “Start it, and we will bless it.”
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