The heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem issued a rare joint appeal this weekend, warning that a disputed land deal could erase the centuries-old presence of the Armenian community within the Old City.
The ethnic Armenian community has its own neighborhood within the ancient city of Jerusalem, beneath the boundaries drawn by Ottoman rulers – the smallest of four neighborhoods, which also include very distinct Muslim, Jewish and Christian neighborhoods.
However, the Armenians say they risk being uprooted by a deal to lease about 25% of their land area to developers wanting to build a luxury hotel on the site.
The agreement was signed by the head of Armenian Church of Jerusalem in July 2021, but members of his community said the first they heard about it was when surveyors started working in the area this year.
He told his congregation that he had been misled and sued to have the contract annulled. The priest who negotiated the deal on his behalf was defrocked by the Church synod in May and left Jerusalem.
Despite the legal challenge, bulldozers arrived last week and began destroying a parking lot that covers part of the disputed land. When protesters blocked the work, armed Jewish Israeli settlers arrived in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the demonstration.
“The provocations used by the alleged promoters to deploy incendiary tactics threaten to erase the Armenian presence in the region, weakening and endangering the Christian presence in the Holy Land,” wrote the Christian leaders, including the heads of Orthodox groups Greek and Roman Catholic Churches.
The Armenian community claims that the investor behind the land lease deal is Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rubinstein, owner of a UAE-registered company – Xana Capital Group. A company sign was posted in the parking lot shortly after surveyors arrived.
Rubinstein did not respond to a request for comment on the project sent through his Linked-In account.
The History of Armenian Christianity in Jerusalem
By tradition, Armenia was the first kingdom to convert to Christianity as the state religion in 301, and although its Church is much smaller than the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches, it enjoys parity of rights over the Christian holy places in Jerusalem.
At the heart of their neighborhood is the ornate St. James Cathedral, which dates from 420 AD, adorned with precious lamps and often imbued with the haunting chant of its black-hooded monks.
The neighborhood covers a sixth of Walled Jerusalem and is home to just 1,000 people, a fraction of the Old City’s 35,000 residents.
Armenian residents say the land rental project would occupy not only their parking lot, the largest open space in the Old City, but also their community hall, the Patriarch’s Garden, the seminary and five family homes.
“Armenians have been here since the 4th century, but now we risk being uprooted,” said Hagop Djernazian, 23, a student who is part of a group that guards the parking lot day and night, with barbed wire strung up to protect try to keep the parking lot. developers and settlers. “We have to fight for our existence,” he said.
Daniel Seidemann, an activist Israeli lawyer who closely monitors the spread of Jewish settlers around Jerusalem, said the project aims to expand the Jewish Quarter’s footprint across half of the Old City.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordanian forces in a war in 1967. Israel considers the entire city its eternal, undivided capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.
“We are aware of a plan to encircle the exterior of the Old City with settlement projects. We suspect that this agreement in the Armenia Quarter is meant to be a continuation of this plan inside the walls of the city,” Seidemann told Reuters.
“However, there are so many irregularities surrounding this decision that there is a good chance the courts will overturn it.”
