Jerusalem, June 10, 2022
On June 8, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision rejecting the Patriarchate’s latest attempts to annul the ruling issued against it in July 2017, through which the radical Israeli organization, Ateret Cohanim, succeeded in expropriating the properties of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem at Jaffa Gate (Bab Al-Khalil) in Jerusalem. This decision comes despite the legal battle waged by the Patriarchate for the past seventeen years.
The Patriarchate considered the court’s decision as unfair and having no legal or logical basis, as the radical organization and its backers and supporters have used crooked and illegal methods to acquire Christian real estate in one of the most important sites of Arab Islamic and Christian presence in Jerusalem.
The Patriarchate launched a legal, media and diplomatic campaign over recent years in which it incurred very high costs, in the judicial and diplomatic field, in order to pressure the Israeli authorities to prevent radical organizations from seizing these properties. However, these attempts were thwarted by the pressure of these radical organizations and their agents who support them in decision-making circles.
The Patriarchate affirmed that it will continue to support the Palestinian tenants in their steadfastness in these Christian properties, and that it is unwavering in its battle to curb the racist policy and the agenda of the extremist right-wing in Israel, aimed at eroding the multiple identity of the city of Jerusalem and imposing a new reality within it.
From the website of the Jerusalem Patriarchate
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