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Published by the
Israel Hasbara Committee,
June 24, 2005
Christians Leasing Christian
Lands to Jews or Anyone Else are Criminals –
Palestinian Authority |
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By Anthony David
Marks
In the
Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia it
is a criminal offense, punishable by death, to
sell or lease land to a Jew. Most of the world
develops a hearing impediment when it comes to
these kinds of facts involving Jews. But recently
the matter took a new twist. The Greek Orthodox
Church owns vast tracts of land in Israel and also
lands in Jordan. Patriarch Irenieos I is head of
the Greek Orthodox Church in Israel, which
includes many Palestinians. Reports surfaced
recently that someone in the Greek Orthodox Church
leased lands in the Old City of Jerusalem,
reportedly just inside the Jaffa Gate, to a Jewish
organization. Normally there would be nothing
noteworthy about Jews leasing or purchasing
property in Palestine as Jews have been doing this
for over 100 years in an organized manner; and
before the advent of modern Zionism in the 1890s
for hundreds of years on an invididual basis.
According to a report in
Ma’ariv, one of
Israel’s main
Hebrew daily newspapers, members of the
Palestinian Authority went to the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City, organized
attacks on Irineous and condemned him as a
“collaborator” - a crime in the Palestinian
Authority punishable by death. Readers should
appreciate what it means to be labelled 'a
collaborator' in the Palestinian Authority.
Collaborators are shot or hanged in public places
and their bodies hacked and mutilated by the mob
and all done with great enthusiasm.
To quote the report
further, Irineous was summoned for an
interrogation by PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and
during the meeting the arm of Irineous’ lawyer was
broken and his financial adviser was brutally
beaten. Under PA intimidation, the Church’s Holy
Synod was convened and Irineous was
excommunicated. The PA took over the Church’s
finances.
Greece’s Deputy
Foreign Minister hurriedly went to Ramallah, met
PM Qurei and “apologized for the terrible crime”
of the Patriarch. Irineous has been demoted to the
status of an ordinary monk.
But the matter does not
stop there. The Greek Orthodox Church owns land in
Jerusalem upon
which Israel’s Knesset is situated; also land upon
which the President’s residence is situated and
large swathes of land in central Jerusalem, not to
mention lands throughout Israel. If the
Palestinian Authority is the 'efffective owner' of
all the lands then what will happen when these
leases expire?
Can the Palestinian
Authority simply seize church land and become the
effective owner of all land owned by the Greek
Orthodox Church? Who is the owner – the Greek
government? If there is no complainant against the
Palestinian Authority's seizure there is a
problem. And in the midst of it all, Israel is
withdrawing from Jewish-owned land in the Gaza
Strip with nothing whatsoever in return. The land
in question was originally desolate, ownerless
sand dunes which Jews developed.
Any agreement PM Sharon or
Dov Weisglass may or may not have made with
President George W. Bush in connection with Israel
withdrawing from the Gaza Strip is essentually
worthless, as unlike the British who declared the
Balfour Declaration in 1917 and received a League
of Nations Mandate for the whole area, the U.S.
has no such credentials. And if 'experts' are
going to argue that these historic facts are no
longer relevant then the State of Jordan should be
dissolved has it came into existence directly as a
result of the British Mandate.
If Israel is hell-bent on
creating a Hamastan in the Gaza Strip and
providing Hamas a base of operations against
Israel then the government has lost control of its
sanity.
Source: Israel Hasbara
Committee, www.infoisrael.net.
The author is Chairman of
the Israel Hasbara Committee.
Copyright © Israel Hasbara
Committee, 19 June 2005.
Permission is granted to
use this material on condition the Israel Hasbara
Committee is properly credited and that it is not
for commercial purposes.
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