Israel suspends taxation legislation for Jerusalem’s churches

THE Church of the Holy Sepulchre has announced it will reopen its doors after Israel decided to suspend legislation regarding collecting taxes from churches and their properties in Jerusalem. Following international pressure and rising protests from Palestinian Christians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a committee to discuss the imposition of the property tax, or arnona, on Jerusalem’s churches.

The decision came following a meeting between Netanyahu and the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barakat, and after one of the holiest sites in Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, closed its doors on Sunday in protest against the proposed legislation. Tzachi Hanegbi, the Israeli minister of regional cooperation, will head the committee. Aljazeera’s correspondent Walid al-omari, reporting from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, said that tax procedures on churches and their properties would be frozen under the new arrangement. Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality said that the churches owed $53m in commercial back taxes.

However, the three Christian denominations have countered that this was a plan to “weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem. These actions breach existing agreements and international obligations, which guarantee the rights and privileges of the Churches.” The Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox Church leaders signed the statement. The leader of the Christian National Gathering in the Holy Land, Dimitri Deliani, said that the churches had won this battle against Israeli occupation, which he described as a “war”.