"They are demanding money only from the Christians. No Christian can open a shop on the main road without being required to pay," says one shopkeeper, nervously looking out of his window to check for eavesdroppers.

The price for not paying is made clear. One owner who had refused to pay had his shop peppered with bullets. Another's shopfront was set on fire. The crimes, the locals explain, are perpetrated by gangs "without religion" and started several years ago. Those affected remain too scared to seek help from the police, who they say have neglected the city.

Leon Barra describes how he was "chased, knifed and threatened" by "fundamentalists" who, he says, tried to kill him several years ago. "No one protected me — not until the same gang killed a Jewish taxi driver. Only then did the police put them in jail." He says no one is immune from the criminals, but the Christians constitute the majority of those targeted: "Christians are always the weaker party here, due to our smaller families."

Elsewhere in Israel, action is being taken over a spate of hate crimes directed at both Christians and Muslims. Jerusalem, along with other cities in Israel and the West Bank, has seen a spike in so-called "price tag attacks". Graffiti on houses, churches and mosques, vandalism and arson are just some of the actions taken by Jewish extremists in recent years. The trend was begun in the West Bank in 2009 by radical settlers angry at measures intended to curb settlement growth. Since then the movement has spilled over into Israel. In recent months, the Israeli police have cracked down on the perpetrators, establishing a special price tag unit and even using drone technology to capture the criminals.

But in Nazareth intimidation is still rife. "The residents are afraid to go to the police, because if they do, the next day their houses and car will be attacked," says Father Nadaf, a local Greek Orthodox priest, noting that there is increasing violence among Israeli Arabs generally.

Father Nadaf is no ordinary priest. For one thing, there is a "wanted" poster with his photograph and a hefty price on his head circulating on the internet.

The reason for this is that many object to Nadaf's stance on integration within Israeli society. Because the majority of Israel's Christians are Arabs, they are exempt from military service. But Nadaf and others say that this is not the way forward. He advocates what he calls "full engagement with the Jewish community".

Full engagement means serving in the Israeli Defence Forces, which is compulsory for male and female Jewish Israelis (except for the majority of the ultra-Orthodox until now).

"Israeli Christians are a minority," says Nadaf. "There is a good and stable relationship between Jews and Christians in Israel. It's a cause of great pride." But in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere, Christians are being persecuted, he says. 

In March, Nadaf led a 150-strong demonstration of Christian Arabs outside the European Union mission in Tel Aviv. "According to the statistics, a Christian is murdered every five minutes in the Middle East, and the Western world is silent about this," he said to his fellow demonstrators.

Today Nadaf encourages other Christians in Israel to realign with the Jewish majority instead. In 2012, he became head of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, a joint government-community group founded by members of the clergy and prominent Israeli Christians already serving in the IDF, police and border police, with the aim of encouraging Christian youth to enlist.