Published: 27 June 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The Old City’s ancient Armenian community is in trouble on multiple levels: spitting assaults by young Haredim, extremist attacks on churches and a property battle over a development by an Australian Israeli.
Jerusalem Armenians say they’re facing an existential crisis that could be the beginning of the end of the Armenian presence in the Old City. And it’s being perpetrated, they allege, by their own religious leadership.
A deal has been signed by the Armenian Patriarchate that will hand up to 25% of the quarter to a commercial entity for a 99-year lease, according to lawyers working to stop the deal. The reported intention is to build a luxury hotel on some of the land that is currently a parking lot but is on prime real estate nestled just within the Old City walls.
An Australian-Israeli businessman, Danny Rothman (sometimes referred to as Danny Rubenstein) is believed to be behind the development which includes the Hadiqat Al-Baqar (The Cows’ Garden) and its surrounding properties, including the Qishla building in Bab al-Khalil (Jaffa Gate), located in the Armenian Quarter.
Rumors of this sale first surfaced in 2021, but recently a sign was placed on one of the tracts saying the land is the property of Xana Capital, the company which Danny Rothman owns. According to a bishop involved in the sale, Rothman and his business Xana Capital plans to develop the land into a luxury resort managed by a Dubai-based company.
The drama has pitted the Armenian community against its religious leader, the Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian. Regular protests have been held, with Armenian residents and supporters creating a human chain around the part of the quarter allegedly part of the deal.
Earlier this month, a group of volunteer Armenian lawyers from Armenia and the US arrived for a seven-day fact-finding mission to help understand the situation and suggest remedies. A full report is expected to be published in the coming days.
At a community meeting on Sunday, the lawyers said it’s not just some homes that are at risk: The Armenian heritage museum as well as the Armenian cemetery are “possibly threatened.”
The Armenian community, like all Jerusalem’s Christian communities, is facing an increasingly unfriendly atmosphere with the rise of Jewish extremism.
There have been several reports of attacks on churches in recent months, most dramatically at the Chapel of Flagellation in February.
Haredi youngsters have also taken to spitting on Christian clergy and buildings. Armenian clergy, with their distinctive headdresses and heavy crosses, are favourite targets.
Yisca Harani, a scholar of Christian denominations in the Holy Land, says the problem has existed for years but has worsened recently, prompting a conference that discussed the problem last week.
Harani said that the political atmosphere in the country has enabled the spitting phenomenon to worsen. Now, she said, it is no longer a question of “bored brats,” but an organised campaign, which originates from the claim that Christians are engaged in missionary activity.
In January, ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed imposing jail time for Christian proselytizing, although after a global outcry, Netanyahu said he would block the bill.
The fact that the Armenian Church has never engaged in missionary activity does not seem to bother those who wish to increase the fight against the Christian presence in Israel.
READ MORE
A controversial land deal pits a community against its religious leaders (CNN)
In Jerusalem’s contested Old City, shrinking Armenian community fears displacement after land deal (AP)
Why do Jewish extremists spit on Christian clergy in Jerusalem's Old City? (Jerusalem Post)
Christians in the Holy Land say they’re under attack as Israeli-Palestinian violence soars (NBC)
Photo: A priest walks through one of the street’s in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter. (Matthew Karanian, Asbaraz)
