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Occupied East Jerusalem – On the entrance of the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, two historic accommodations that belong to the Greek Orthodox Church have been entangled in a years-long battle over possession and id.
Throughout excessive seasons, the accommodations, which overlook Omar ibn al-Khattab Sq., bustle with vacationers booked in for a vacation or a spiritual event within the holy metropolis.
The 2 properties – the New Imperial, a 40-room resort run by the Palestinian Muslim Dajani household since 1949, and the neighbouring Petra Lodge, a big advanced held by the Kirrish household for many years – are a stone’s throw away from the long-lasting Jaffa Gate.
When the solar units each evening, a way of calm drapes the quarter, drowning out the day’s noise and returning the buildings to a time of the traditional previous.
However Israeli troopers stationed on the entrance of the now empty Petra Lodge for the previous 5 months trace at one thing disconcerting.
For almost 20 years, the Greek Orthodox Church and the broader Palestinian populace have tried to problem the unconventional Israeli settler group, Ateret Cohanim, from taking the properties via a covert sale agreed to in 2004.
The accommodations, together with a historic residential advanced within the Muslim Quarter, had been offered as a part of a $1.8m deal signed by a Greek official who has since disappeared and been named “corrupt” and a “traitor” by the church and Jerusalem’s wider Christian neighborhood.
Whereas the battle over these properties has typically been framed as a authorized one, the church says the difficulty is political at coronary heart, and includes the safety of the properties’ Palestinian and Christian identities.
“What these Israeli settlers have been planning for Jaffa Gate is a part of a wider technique to weaken the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem,” Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, informed Al Jazeera.
“Taking up the properties is a violation of Palestinian rights and of Christian holy websites,” mentioned Hanna. “We’ve a duty to problem makes an attempt to erase Jerusalem’s Palestinian id and historical past,” he added.
The problem is seen by Palestinians as a part of a unbroken effort by Israeli settler teams to take over their land and properties to determine new settlements.
Distinguished instances of Israeli settlers making an attempt to occupy Palestinian properties and forcibly evict Palestinians embrace the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, Silwan, which lies on the outskirts of the Outdated Metropolis, and Hebron, within the southern occupied West Financial institution.
The battle to remain
For the reason that sale, the church has argued that the deal, which leased the properties to the settler group for 99 years, was accomplished in unhealthy religion and with out the information of the patriarchate’s board of trustees – a situation beneath the church’s legal guidelines on the subject of its properties. It additionally says that the deal grossly undervalued the properties.
In response to legal professionals concerned within the case, the Petra Lodge, which is valued at a minimal of $10m, was purchased for $500,000 – the value of a single condominium exterior of the Outdated Metropolis.
Because of the competition across the sale, the case was taken to the Supreme Courtroom, which in 2019 dominated that the deal was kosher.
In response to Asad Mezawi, a lawyer representing the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy, the court docket determined that whereas the deal raised many questions, the church was unable to supply sufficient proof to show the illegality of the sale and deem it void.
“However that’s as a result of all the proof disappeared with the official and different church workers who went into hiding after they made the deal,” mentioned Mezawi, pointing to what many Jerusalemites understand as “treason” amongst those that agreed to the sale.
Regardless of this, a flip of occasions in 2019 introduced a momentary glimmer of hope.
A dealer who labored on behalf of Ateret Cohanim “switched sides”, mentioned Mezawi, and offered “key recordings and proof” that confirmed the Israeli organisation had bribed and blackmailed members of the church into promoting the properties since 1996. The recordings additionally proved that the properties had been offered for a lot lower than their market worth, he added.
“The New Imperial was offered for $1.25m. And but, Ateret Cohanim needs $3m in lease from the Dajani household for the previous 15 years,” defined Mezawi, highlighting the discrepancy.
Taking the brand new proof offered by the dealer to court docket, the Greek Orthodox Church battled for 2 years to reopen the case. However, in June, the Supreme Courtroom rejected the enchantment, bringing the authorized battle for the properties’ possession to an in depth.
With that, the Church and its tenants have been combating towards the eviction of the properties’ Palestinian holders, and the last word transformation of the quarter’s id from Palestinian and Christian to Israeli.
Regardless of their efforts, this transformation is already beneath method on the Petra Lodge. On March 26, a gaggle of armed settlers entered a piece of the advanced, referred to as “Little Petra”, and have since taken residence there.
‘My soul’
Walid Dajani, whose protected tenancy on the New Imperial was agreed with the Greek patriarchy for 3 generations within the Forties, has appealed to world leaders together with the Pope, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the British authorities, and King Abdullah II of Jordan for help.
“I can’t categorical my attachment to this constructing,” mentioned Dajani, as he pointed to an assortment of images adorning his workplace partitions.
They informed the story of his household’s roots on the resort and in Jerusalem, the place they’ve owned huge lands for greater than 700 years. The images additionally boasted of visits to the resort by well-known visitors, together with Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1898 and Basic Edmund Allenby in 1917.
Daniel Luria, the Australian-born govt director of Ateret Cohanim, has beforehand claimed that nobody could be evicted from the 2 buildings, and that the plan was to revive them as boutique accommodations, fairly than as rabbinical seminaries.
“I scent antisemitism and racism making an attempt to implement Judenrein areas in united Jerusalem,” the Jerusalem Put up quoted Luria as saying. “Jews are the indigenous folks in Israel,” he added, and different claims are “unacceptable”.
In a press release on July 21, Ateret Cohanim mentioned: “If a Jew is shopping for or leasing a property owned by the Church … he’s NOT driving out the Church or its believers.
“The Jaffa Gate accommodations in query ARE NOT HOLY CHRISTIAN SITES. They don’t seem to be Church buildings. They’re merely fundamental accommodations in want of main funding and overhaul.
“They’re now leased for a really very long time to Jewish issues, as ratified by the Israeli court docket system together with the Israel Supreme Courtroom.”
After the 2019 Supreme Courtroom dominated in favour of the sale’s legality, Ateret Cohanim branded the Dajani and Kirrish households as “squatters” and has since threatened to maneuver Israeli settlers into their properties because it did at Little Petra.
“Generally, I’ve nightmares that today has come,” mentioned Dajani, referring to the dreaded second when he can be compelled out. “If these properties are taken away, I don’t see a Christian in website right here [Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter] within the subsequent 40 years.”
In response to Mezawi, the settler group has been utilizing a number of techniques to attempt to evict Palestinian tenants, together with elevating rents to unaffordable costs; refusing to approve their requests for restorations, leaving the properties in a state of disarray; and making an attempt to disprove their protected tenancy standing.
Their actions go towards Israeli regulation, mentioned Mezawi. “In response to Israeli regulation, individuals who leased properties in Jerusalem earlier than 1968 are thought of protected tenants who can’t be evicted,” mentioned the lawyer.
Hagit Ofran, from the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now, which has campaigned towards the Israeli takeover of the properties for years, mentioned that whereas the gross sales had been “suspicious” and undervalued, an important concern is the political implications of the deal.
“Israeli authorities can’t let a handful of settlers decide the way forward for Jerusalem via corruption and bribes,” mentioned Ofran, including that the last word duty concerning the destiny of those properties fell with the Israeli authorities.
“In the event that they’re left to their plan, the Palestinians can be evicted, and the properties can be stuffed with lots of of settlers,” defined Ofran. “A holy and touristic website will turn into an Israeli settlement.”
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