Church closed in row with authorities

ISRAEL: The doors of Jerusalem’s sacred Church of the Holy Sepulchre remained shuttered yesterday amid a growing dispute between Christian leaders in the Holy Land and Israel over the future of multiple church-owned properties and lands they say should be protected by international law.

The unprecedented move at the site that each day draws thousands to the place that Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and later resurrected comes after the Jerusalem municipality took steps to start taxing church properties in the city.

It is also a response to proposed legislation that could block the churches from making commercial deals with investors on land they leased long-term to the Israeli government nearly 70 years ago.

At a news conference in front of the church’s bolted doors and in a joint statement that followed, the leaders of the Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian churches said Israel was waging a ‘‘systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land, in flagrant violation of the existing status quo.’’

‘‘Recently, this systematic and offensive campaign has reached an unprecedented level as the Jerusalem municipality issued scandalous collection notices and orders of seizure of Church assets, properties and bank accounts for alleged debts of punitive municipal taxes,’’ wrote the church leaders.

They said that the step breached agreements and international obligations by Israel toward the church and that it ‘‘seems as an attempt to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem.’’

After the news conference yesterday, the Israeli parliament agreed to hold off discussing the legislation to ‘‘ease tensions with church leaders in Jerusalem and find a compromise’’.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said the new taxation policies cover only properties belonging to the church that are used for commercial purposes. The churches owe the municipality more than $185 million in back taxes on such properties, the mayor’s office said.

Rachel Azaria, the Israeli lawmaker behind the legislation, said her bill focused on large tracts of land leased by the church to Israel not long after the state’s creation in 1948.

Several years ago, it was revealed that the land, upon which sit hundreds of residential apartment blocks and national institutions, was sold by the church in million-dollar commercial deals to private developers. If approved by parliament, the law will confiscate the lands sold by the church in private deals and prevent similar transactions in the future. -

PHOTO: AP Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Holy Land Theophilos III, centre, stands outside the closed doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The leaders of the major Christian sects in Jerusalem closed the church for several hours to protest an Israeli plan to tax their properties.