Church closed amid dispute with Israelis
Jerusalem moves to start taxing church properties in city.
The doors of JERUSALEM —
Jerusalem’s sacred Church of the Holy Sepulchre remained shuttered Sunday amid a growing dispute between Christian leaders in the Holy Land and Israel over the future of multiple churchowned 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 wooded 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.”
“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.”
Closing the church’s doors comes at a highly sensitive time after a potentially destabilizing decision by President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy to the sensitive city. Local Muslims and Christians have said that such a move could upset the religious balance in Jerusalem.
Palestinians have also said that the formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and transferring the embassy there makes it impossible for the United States to be a fair broker in any future peace process.
Further alienating the Palestinians, the U.S. State Department confirmed on Friday speculation that the U.S. Embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, in time for Israel’s 70th anniversary.
During his Dec. 6 speech, Trump lauded Israel for building a country “where Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and people of all faiths are free to live and worship according to their conscience and according to their beliefs.”
The latest dispute between the church and Israeli lawmakers appears to be a litmus test for that.
After the news conference on Sunday, the Israeli parliament agreed to hold off discussing the legislation to “ease tensions with church leaders in Jerusalem and find a compromise.”
But Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the dispute showed the “dramatic reality of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, and particularly of our churches.”
Most of the Christian population in Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank are of Palestinian heritage.