Palestinian-Armenian dispute over Jerusalem land deal intensifies

Palestinians in Bethlehem protest against the selling of land to Israelis. (AP/File)

• Israeli municipality and Armenians agreed to turn a piece of sensitive land in the old city into a parking lot, but ‘one could smell a rat’

AMMAN: A land row between Palestinians and an Armenian church in Jerusalem has intensified with the head of the Higher Presidential Committee of Church Affairs in Palestine appealing for peace to the religious and political leadership in Armenia.
An agreement between the Armenians and Israeli Jerusalem municipality to turn a piece of sensitive land in the old city of Jerusalem into a parking lot took effect on Jan. 1. Jewish residents of the Old City have had exclusive use of the parking lot, which has caused concern among the Palestinian leadership and members of the tiny Armenian community.
Officials of the Armenian Patriarchate insisted that the contract with the Israeli Jerusalem municipality and the Jewish-centric Jerusalem Development Authority does not constitute selling or leasing land but is simply a financial operation.
The Higher Presidential Committee of Church Affairs in Palestine wrote to Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manoogian reminding him that the Armenian quarter is part of occupied Palestinian territories where UN resolutions, including the 2017 UNSC Resolution 2334, apply.
Letters by senior Palestinian officials were also sent to the Catholicos of All Armenians Patriarch Karekin II, calling land transactions in the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem a violation of international law since the area inside the Old City of Jerusalem is an “integral part of the Palestinian occupied territories” governed by relevant international resolutions.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry has also been “urged to intervene,” a statement by the Higher Presidential Committee stated.
The dispute follows the secrecy over land deals in the Old City of Jerusalem organized by the Armenian patriarchate in Jerusalem in cooperation with the Israeli institution.
Ramzi Khoury, the president of the Higher Presidential Committee of Churches in Palestine, told Arab News that the aim of the letters sent to Armenian officials is to force the church in Jerusalem to open up and coordinate with us: “Our main goal is to uncover what is hidden.”
The letters were sent twice, but there was no response.
While Khoury focused on a 10-year lease to the Israeli municipality of an empty plot to be turned into a parking lot, he did not specify a much more serious deal with a Jewish Austrian investor to lease the same land for 99 years to build a large hotel in a sensitive area between the Armenian and Jewish quarters.
Sources in the Armenian Patriarchate say that the hotel deal is opposed by the majority of the Armenian St. James Synod which has not met in more than three years.
A senior Armenian leader from Jerusalem told Arab News on condition of anonymity that he has always suspected a much bigger deal than the parking lot one: “From when the patriarch and his director of real estate began their effort, one could smell a rat.”
The Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop Sevan Gharibian and the head of the real estate department Rev. Baret Yeretsian are accused of going against the wishes of their own synod and that of the nearly 1,000 Armenian Christians who live in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
In a statement issued on Sept. 22 by the chair of the Armenian Patriarchate Synod, the church said that they had ratified the agreement and noted that the lease provides “a steady income of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to support the Armenian patriarchate.”
The statement signed by Father Samuel Aghazian admitted that a “luxurious hotel structure” would be built based on a long-term lease without imposing any risk to the full and exclusive ownership of this land.
An Armenian website Keghart called what is happening in Jerusalem a scandal. In an editorial on Aug. 31, the publication reminded the Armenian patriarch that the Armenian Quarter and other “Patriarchate-owned” real estate does not even belong to the Armenian Church or to the St. James Brotherhood.
“They are the possessions of the Armenian nation. Every last inch of holy land Armenian property was purchased through the donations of Armenian pilgrims, nobility, kings, and charitable organizations over a millennium. Twice in recent centuries, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem was bankrupt and was close to losing all its real estate. It was rescued by Armenian merchants and regular Armenian patriots.”
The Keghart editorial supported Palestinian and international law by concluding that “every inch of the holy land falls under strict local and international laws hence no one has the right to split up that one entity into different trading parts.”