tragedy

Published by The Jerusalem Post, August 25, 2005

Greek tragedy

Pointing at a framed newspaper article hanging on the wall near his office desk, Walid Dajani, manager of the Imperial Hotel, said disgustedly, "I first heard about the deal from the media."

Dajani is a Muslim native of Jerusalem. His family began managing the Imperial Hotel in July 1949, when they received protected tenant status from the Greek Orthodox Church.

"I thought it was a hoax," added Dajani after pausing to exhale a long drag into the expanse of his dark office, which overlooks Omar Ibn al Hitab square just inside Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Christian Quarter.

Dajani was referring to media reports that Jewish businessmen based overseas had acquired a long-term lease from the Greek Orthodox Church for several key properties, including the Imperial Hotel, inside Jerusalem's Old City.

"It was all done in such an inhuman way to prove that Palestinians are eating and drinking from Jewish hands. They came by surprise in the middle of the night like burglars."

"They" is the Richard's Marketing Corporation, an investment company based in the Virgin Islands. Palestinians say the company is a front for Ateret Kohanim, a Jewish organization that declares as its aim returning Jewish life to all parts of the Old City by buying up tracts of land from Christians and Muslims.

In 1990, Ateret Kohanim enraged Palestinians when it bought the Saint John's Hospice, one of the single largest buildings in the Old City. Today it houses a yeshiva, a kollel and 10 Jewish families.

Dajani's disparaging remarks about the Jewish buyers may be calculated, a source told The Jerusalem Post.

"If Dajani has protected tenant status, it is very possible that whoever bought the building from the Greek Orthodox Church also reached a deal with Dajani. But Dajani is a dead man if this becomes known. So he has to act outraged," said the source.

Daniel Luria, fundraiser and overseas director for Ateret Kohanim, said his organization "knew nothing more about the deal other than what has been published in the media."

Nevertheless, Luria added that if the reports were true, he was happy that Jews would be returning to Jerusalem.

"Jews, Christians and Muslims should be allowed to buy and sell land freely without fear of violent reprisal as is befitting a democratic country," said Luria. "Ateret Kohanim's goal is to strengthen Jewish roots in Jerusalem while adhering to the letter and the spirit of the law."

According to Dajani, Joseph Richter, the Jerusalem-based attorney representing Richard's Marketing Corporation, sent Dajani a letter explaining that the company he represents acquired from the Greek Orthodox Church a 99-year lease with an option for another 99 years for the building housing the Imperial Hotel from the Greek Orthodox Church. Richter requested a meeting.

"I told them I refused to meet with them until I receive proof of the purchase," said Dajani defiantly.

But Richter assured the Post that the sale was legally binding, although he refused to disclose details.

Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the Patriarchate, said that there were three pieces of real estate that were apparently leased. In addition to the Imperial Hotel, which has been used often for official Palestinian meetings since the closing of the Orient House, other properties include the Petra Hostel, which is adjacent to the Imperial Hotel, and buildings located between the Damascus and Herod's gates.

"The amount of money received from the deal was so ridiculously low and the leases were so long-term that it was obvious someone had been paid under the table," said Aristarchos, who said he did not recall the exact amounts to be paid.

Aristarchos said it is still unclear whether the land deal will hold up in a court of law.

"So far no one has come forward to finalize the deal in court," said Aristarchos.

Dajani responded, "If it is true that these Jews bought the building, I think it is disgusting and despicable."

"What happened in Jaffa Gate is unacceptable," declared Archimandrite Atallah Hanna, a militant Palestinian member of the Greek Orthodox clergy who is grooming himself for a position as bishop in the Greek Orthodox Church.

"These are Christian properties belonging to church heritage. They must not be sold."

Details about the sale of the properties were first leaked to the Israeli press at the end of April, right before Good Friday, probably the most solemn and holiest day for Christians, which commemorates Christ's crucifixion. Reports of the east Jerusalem property sale to Jews aroused the furor of the Palestinians, who comprise most of the 100,000 Greek Orthodox flock in the Holy Land.

Blame for the sale was originally placed squarely on the shoulders of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Irineos I, who was the only one who could have made the sale.

Then, this week, in an unprecedented move, Irineos I was suddenly ousted by the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land. In a unanimous, 14-0 election, Metropolitan Theophilos from Messinia, Greece was named his successor.

Church law stipulates that any successor must be approved by Israel, the PA and Jordan. But while the PA and Jordan have recognized Irineos's dismissal, Israel has not, putting Israel and the church on a virtual collision course, which could potentially result in a split within the church.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said this week that the issue was under discussion, and that Israel was studying the law on the matter. A ministerial committee appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and headed by Minister Without Portfolio Tsahi Hanegbi to conduct a probe on the matter has not yet submitted its recommendations, he said at press time.

The elections went ahead hours after the Jerusalem District Court rejected a petition against delaying the vote while Israel was absorbed in the withdrawal from Gaza.

Patriarch Theophilos has previously pledged to return all the properties leased to Israel to the church. Currently his office is neither receiving nor returning calls.

Richter, who represented the Jews in the controversial sale, says the new elections will have no bearing on the land situation.

Internationally, Theophilos's election has been welcomed: Both Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, as well as other top government officials in Athens, sent congratulatory telegrams to the newly elected patriarch on Monday night.

Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Panayiotis Skandalakis called the entire procedure to elect the new Greek Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy Land "flawless," praising the entire brotherhood for the "moderation and wisdom" with which they faced the "provocations" of the past few months.

Archbishop Aristarchos said in an interview this week that he expects Israel to recognize the newly-elected patriarch.

Aristarchos conceded that there was a fissure within the clergy between opponents of Irineos such as himself, and his supporters within the church, noting that the two sides were "not in communication" with each other.

For his part, Irineos has refused to recognize his dismissal, saying Nikolas Papadimas, the former church treasurer, abused a power of attorney Irineos had given him to lease the properties.
Irineos claims Papadimas then pocketed the money from the deal and disappeared after being charged in Greece with stealing church funds in a separate case. Papadimas, who has fled the country and is wanted by Interpol, is thought to be in South America.

IRINEOS'S CONTROVERSIAL place within his community has been building for quite some time. On Good Friday, as Irineos led a procession of pilgrims and clergy reciting lamentations to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, he was attacked, according to news reports.

Angry Arab protesters mobbed the Greek Orthodox patriarch, shouting "Judas" and "Shame on you!" as they struggled with Israeli riot police and pilgrims from Greece and Cyprus. While Greek and Arab coreligionists squabbled over a sign that read: "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss," protesters spat on the patriarch and one of them lobbed a bottle of water at the patriarch's head.

Despite Irineos's claims that he had nothing to do with the land deal, the Holy Synod, the Patriarchate's governing body, decided to reduce his rank to that of a monk, the lowest position held by celibate ecclesiasts – before his official dismissal almost six months later.

The Synod's decision was backed up by a pan-Orthodox Synod convened in Istanbul by Bartholomew, that city's patriarch, who is considered the first among equals due to Istanbul's historic importance. Unlike the Catholic Church, which is headed by the pope, the Orthodox Church is comprised of about a dozen independent or "autocephalous" patriarchs. Normally, these churches act autonomously. Rarely does a pan-Orthodox Synod interfere in the internal affairs of individual churches.

In tandem, the Palestinian Authority also recommended dismissing Irineos. The PA reached this conclusion even though an investigation it conducted, which has yet to be published, backed up Irineos's claim that he knew nothing about the deal.

Issa Kassissieh, a Greek Orthodox lay-leader and a former advisor to the late Feisal Husseini in the Orient House during the 1990s, said that regardless of whether Irineos was involved with the land deal, he had to go.

"The man is paranoid," said Kassissieh. "He made enemies everywhere. Under his rule, relations between the Greek Orthodox Church and other churches deteriorated. He also had a terrible relation with his flock."

Another acquaintance, who preferred to remain anonymous, told of how Irineos acted uncivilly and inappropriately during an official meeting.

"For some reason he launched a tirade against the Catholic Church for over an hour."

Archbishop Aristarchos, chief secretary of the Patriarchate and one of the leading figures in the Patriarchate that brought about the ousting of Irineos, said the patriarch behaved like an autocrat.

"He never included the Synod in the decision-making process," said Aristarchos. "There was also a real problem with financial transparency," he added, although he did not provide specific examples of mismanagement.

However, Archimandrite Chrisostomos, one of the few priests inside the Patriarchate who has remained loyal to Irineos, and who has suffered the indignity of being reduced to a simple monk together with Irineos, claims his patriarch is an upright man.

"He is a very simple, good-hearted person with an Old World mindset," said Chrisostomos. "He also took steps to make the church's financial management more transparent.

"For instance, all money raised from the sale of candles to pilgrims was transferred to the patriarch's cashier's office. This money used to go directly into the patriarch's pocket.

"He also eradicated the practice of bribing church officials to obtain protected tenant status," said Chrisostomos.
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Irineos's relationship with Israel is complicated. During the 2001 elections for the patriarch, Israel rejected Irineos due to his pro-Palestinian, anti-Semitic opinions. According to a law dating back to the Ottoman Empire, Israel, Jordan and the PA, which all have jurisdiction over lands owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, must all approve candidates for the patriarch's position.

According to Maariv, Irineos sent a letter to Arafat in which he wrote that the Holy Sepulcher Fathers are feeling "disgust and disrespect" for "the descendents of the crucifiers of our Lord Jesus Christ, actual crucifiers of your people."

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem denied the report in Maariv, saying the patriarch's correspondence was forged and filed a complaint with Israeli police. Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's director for inter-religious affairs, said that Patriarch Irineos's correspondence was a "blatant forgery" that "was exposed as such by the investigation of the Israeli police.

"It must be a forgery because the stamp on the letter bears Irineos's name but the letter was supposedly written before Irineos became patriarch," said Rosen.

Nevertheless, Irineos was perceived by the Israeli government as a dangerous church leader who should be prevented from ascending to the patriarch position. The Israeli government did not recognize Irineos as patriarch until the beginning of 2004. Palestinians say Israel forced Irineos to lease the land in exchange for official recognition.

The Greek Orthodox Church is the richest church in the region and the second largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state. The Knesset, the Prime Minister's official residence and the President's official residence are all on land owned by the Greek Orthodox Church. The church also has large chunks of land all over Israel, including Jaffa, Ramallah, Caesarea and in Galilee. Most of this land is on long-term lease.

Israel fears that when it comes time to renew these leases, a pro-Palestinian patriarch could try to put political pressure on Israel.

But Kassissieh rejects the possibility that Palestinian interests will dictate church policy.

"Greek Orthodox Arabs oppose political interference in the internal affairs of the church. There is no right to use the church in such a way."

Nevertheless, now, in a twist of events, Israel has been forced to come out in support of Irineos, and unlike the PA and Jordan, it has not recognized Irineos's dismissal. Israel could not condone defrocking Irineos for selling land to Jews. In fact, Irineos has become a sort of hero of right-wing Jews interested in tightening their hold on Jerusalem.

ATALLAH MANSOUR'S family converted to the Greek Catholic Church from the Greek Orthodox Church in 1725. Mansour, the author of Narrow Gate Churches and a veteran Haaretz journalist, said many have made a similar transformation over the past 200 years.

"Perhaps it happened to us a little earlier in history than most," said Mansour. "But the gradual movement from the Greek Orthodox Church to the Greek Catholic Church continues to this day."

Mansour said the main reason for the move is not anchored in faith and theology, rather in socioeconomic factors.

"Over the past two centuries, the Catholic Church has been investing aggressively in the Holy Land, building schools, hospitals and welfare institutions. In contrast, the Greek Orthodox Church has done next to nothing for its congregation. There are almost no schools, no hospitals, no welfare organizations. So people have gradually left."

Mansour said that the land deal is all the more painful for Greek Orthodox Arabs because they know they will not see a penny of the proceeds invested in their community.

"Most people accuse the patriarch," said Mansour. "But this was not the first patriarch to sell land. It makes everyone feel bad when you think that the clergy, who are almost all ethnic Greeks, are using the church's massive property holdings for their own whims."

Until about 200 years ago, besides a smattering of Armenian and Syrian Christians, the vast majority of indigenous Christians belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church. But today, the majority of Arab Christians inside the Green Line belong to the Greek Catholic Church.

Daniel Rossing, director of the Religious Affairs Ministry's Department for Christian Communities between 1975 and 1988, and present director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, agreed that Catholicism's success in winning over so many Greek Orthodox Arabs was primarily a result of their intensive investment in schools, hospitals and welfare.

But another reason for Catholicism's success was the creation of the Greek Catholic (Melkite) rite.

"In the 18th, but primarily in the 19th century, Catholics arrived in the Holy Land and had the wisdom not to try to woo Greek Orthodox to Latin Orthodoxy," said Rossing.

"They recognized that Latin Catholicism was too closely bound to Western culture, and was, therefore, foreign to the East. They allowed Greek Orthodox to maintain major, significant liturgical traditions and clerical dress and the interior style of the churches. Lower level clergy were also allowed to marry like in the Orthodox Church.

"The Catholics placed emphasis on getting the Greek Orthodox to recognize the supremacy of Rome and the pope."

Today, the Greek Orthodox community in the Holy Land, including Judea and Samaria, but not Jordan, numbers about 60,000. More than half are located in the Galilee in places like Nazareth and Kfar Yasif.

Inside the Green Line, there are about 40,000 Greek Orthodox. In contrast, there are more than 50,000 Greek Catholics inside the Green Line.

Beyond the Green Line, there is still a majority of Greek Orthodox. Tens of thousands live in east Jerusalem and neighboring cities such as Beit Jala, Ramallah and Bethlehem.

Experts say the main reason for the expansion of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, which coincided with the rise of Europe and the parallel decline in the Ottoman Empire, was the quest for power.

But there were also religious motives behind the Catholic Church's desire to "save souls."

Archbishop Aristarchos said that there are many theological differences between Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches, the most obvious being the primacy of the bishop of Rome, the pope.

Asked whether it could endanger one's ultimate salvation, Aristarchos said, "salvation belongs to God to judge." But he admitted that there were problematic elements in Catholic theology.

"I believe that in other churches, there may be untruths. And I cannot say these untruths do not endanger salvation. I cannot say what happens to souls that accept a dangerous faith. Only God can say."

ALTHOUGH THEY are called Greek Orthodox, the Arab laity in the Holy Land, unlike the clergy, which is composed almost entirely of ethnic Greeks, does not identify at all with the state of Greece or the Greek language. There are no pilgrimages to Greece. The Greek Orthodox liturgy in the Holy Land is in Arabic, except in the convents and the churches, where the majority of prayers are said by clergy or pilgrims, like in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The vast majority of laypeople see themselves as Arabs and many call themselves "Arab Orthodox." They see themselves as authentic Arabs and point out that the Greek Orthodox Church predates Islam.

"Once all Christian communities were under the auspices of Greek culture. The holy bible was written in Greek. The Greek language was not limited to one area. It was the language of the learned and cultured.

"I identify myself as Arab Orthodox. I myself and most of the congregation identify ourselves as Arabs."

This strong emphasis on Arab identity is a tactic used by the Christian community to neutralize religious differences with their Muslim neighbors.

"It is very similar to the phenomenon of Jewish Marxists," said Rossing. "These Christians use Arab or Palestinian nationalism to play down religious differences."

Political ideologies popular in the 1950s and 1960s, such as communism and pan-Arabism, which now sound anachronistic, especially in the past decade with the rise of Islamic extremism, are still alive among Christian Arabs.

"We see ourselves as part of pan-Arabism," said would-be bishop Hanna. "We are part of the socioeconomic strength of the area."

Another ideological common denominator between Arab Christians and their Muslim neighbors is the national aspiration of the Palestinian people.

"Palestine is my homeland," said Hanna. "The Palestinian cause is my cause. Christian Arabs live in the Muslim world. There is unity and complementary relations. Christian Palestinians always contributed to the Palestinian cause. They defended the land and the cause."

However, Rossing said there is a fundamental difference between the Greek Orthodox community in the Galilee and its Jerusalem-area counterpart.

"In the Jerusalem area, they are more intensely in the crossfire. As a result, they are under more pressure to choose sides.

"In contrast, in the Galilee, the Palestinian Israeli conflict is less pressing on a daily level. Although there are common tensions, they tend not to be focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

The Arab media have quoted Hanna, who represents the Greek Orthodox communities in the Jerusalem area, supporting violence as a means to attain a Palestinian state. In January 2003, he reportedly condoned suicide bombings against Israelis and blessed shahids ("martyrs") who blew themselves up to kill Israelis.

However, in an interview with the Post, Hanna denied he had supported suicide bombings.

"Palestinians have the right to resist. But the battle against occupation and oppression must be done in a civilized way. It is against our belief to use violence against innocent people because all humans are created in the image of God."

"But we have to differentiate between Judaism and Zionism. We respect Judaism highly. It is one of the three monotheistic religions.

"But we have reservations with Zionism. We can and should have a constructive discussion with Judaism. There can be a dialogue. But when it comes to Zionism, and especially when it comes to our interests, we suffer from Israel's discriminatory policies against us. As we live under occupation, we suffer as Christians. We believe strongly in coexistence, but coexistence and peace do not go together with occupation and oppression."

Undoubtedly, there are strong political and business interests involved with the election of the new patriarch. But after the recent land deal scandal with Irineos, it is doubtful whether Theophilos, whoever his allies are, will be willing to take any risks.

AJC's Rabbi Rosen believes that there will be very few land sales in the near future.

"Even though the issue of the sale of land in the Christian quarter was purely a pretext for the removal of Irineos, nevertheless, whoever will come in his place will be far more reticent about any kind of transaction that might cause the patriarch to run afoul of Israel or the Palestinians." n



Volume 7 Number 35 - Tuesday, August 30th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY