Pilgrims are returning to Jerusalem; not quite in former numbers, but they’re back. What they won’t register are the tensions in East Jerusalem as a result of a systemic attempt by Jewish settler groups to change the Christian part of the Old City by strategic purchases of property inside it. One organisation behind the project is Ateret Cohanim, a US-funded body which seeks to make Jer-usalem predominantly Jewish. That project may not have the support of most Israelis, but it may have the backing of parts of the government. Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann, who has observed the situation for some years, says that “Israel is engaged in policies which allow exclusionary, biblically-motivated settlers to shape the character of the area around the Old City, thereby marginalising and diluting the Christian equities in Jerusalem”.
There are about a dozen different Christian denominations in Jerusalem, once notoriously divided. But those rivalries have pretty well vanished. A couple of years ago the Sepulchre was restored for the first time in two centuries with the co-operation of the churches.
What’s uniting them is a common concern that the Christian character of Jerusalem is under threat. During my trip to Jerusalem at the invitation of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, my colleagues and I met him and the Latin Patriarch, Armenian, Anglican and Lutheran clerics, as well as the Franciscan friar-guardian of the Holy Places, and the Benedictine abbot of the Church of the Dormition. Every one of them had the same story to tell: hostility from specific Jewish groups (not orthodox Jews in general), and outright alarm at the attempt to buy up property in the Christian quarter in a way that threatens Christians.
At one level, there’s micro aggression, like the Jewish activists who spit reflexively at Christian clergy and outside Christian churches and sometimes attack clergy. “It’s my reality,” said Fr Nicodemus Schwabel, the cheerful, bearded German Benedictine monk, whose house of study adjoins the reputed site of Pentecost. His monastery is surrounded by narrow railings, an unsuccessful attempt to block the rubbish thrown by activists into his gardens every Saturday evening after Sabbath. He’s been physically attacked in Jerusalem. But he is keen to emphasise that this is a tiny minority of so-called Hillside Jews. “They’re anarchistic,” he reflects. “I’m all for a multi-cultural, multi-faith Jerusalem. But this is anti-Christian activity; in Germany we’d call this a hate crime.”
The cleric who runs the offices of the Armenian patriarchate, Fr Koryuon Baghdasaryan, had the same story to tell. Last year, he was attacked by two Jewish youths outside his monastery. “When other Jews saw what happened,” he says, “they helped me. But the others spit at me when I go out, or at the monastery.” That low-level aggression, the Armenian priest says, is very different from the atmosphere when he first came to Jerusalem, when people were hopeful of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.
What’s worrying Christian leaders since 2004 is the purchase of five strategic sites in the Christian quarter by Ateret Cohanim. They bought long term leases when the then Patriarch, Irenaios, gave power of attorney to an official who conducted the sales, way below market value, without the knowledge of the church’s Holy Synod which approves the activities of the patriarchate. The present patriarch, Theophilus, is contesting the sales in court. The case was rejected by the Supreme Court, but evidence from a former member of the group may allow the case to be heard afresh; judgement on this is due in June. In a small space like East Jerusalem, these sites take on a huge importance; the Imperial Hotel and the Petra Hotel (which the settlers entered by force a few weeks ago) are next to the Jaffa Gate, where Christians enter the city; another is St John’s Hostel, next to the church of the Holy Sepulchre. I went into the hostel to try to find the leader of Ateret Cohanin, Mati Dan; he wasn’t there but there’s washing on racks and bikes against the wall. He didn’t return my calls.
The Rev Carrie Ballenger, an American serving as Lutheran pastor – the only cleric in Jerusalem with tattoos – is clear about the importance of this move: “You think, okay, well, Jewish people should be able to rent in this part of the city. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s about ‘we’re going to change the nature of this neighbourhood completely.’”
As the Latin Patriarch, Archbishop Pizzaballa, observes: “This affects the Christian presence. In the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem, the community needs our physical spaces; it affects our feeling of freedom in our city you need a place where you can express yourself.” He is equally worried about the recurring proposal to turn the Mount of Olives into a National Park. It sounds innocuous; but one effect would be to remove responsibility for the site from the churches that have administered it successfully until now.
There are now only about 9,000 Christians in East Jerusalem, about one per cent of the population; in 1945 they made up almost a third of the city. If more Christians leave East Jerusalem, if the Christian presence is diminished further, it will diminish Jerusalem.
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