Church land deal enrages
Palestinians
By James
Reynolds
BBC correspondent in Jerusalem
Inside the walls of Jerusalem's
Old City, there is a battle going on.
It involves a secret investor, a man gone into
hiding, an embarrassed Patriarch and the future of
Jerusalem.
The fight centres on a large, ramshackle Palestinian
hotel inside the Christian Arab Quarter.
It is built on a site owned by the Greek Orthodox
Church, one of the largest private landowners in
this region. The hotel - the Imperial - is run by
Abu Walid Dajani.
A few days ago he got a phone call from an Israeli
newspaper. Mr Dajani was told that the land under
his hotel had just been sold to an unknown Israeli
investor.
And in this part of town, that matters.
Palestinian anger
For the Palestinians, selling
a plot of Jerusalem land to Israel means losing a
piece of their future capital.
"The first thing that came up to my mind," Mr Dajani
said, "is that Jerusalem has been raped and rape is
a crime."
Palestinians have reacted angrily to the news.
Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, crowds
have demonstrated against the sale of the land.
The Greek Orthodox Church is now trying to pick its
way through the mess. A warrant is out for the
arrest of the employee who carried out the sale, but
he has gone into hiding.
The Church Patriarch, Irineos I, is under pressure
to resign. He insists that the transaction does not
count, but the courts may have to work that one out
for him.
'Real estate rush'
The apparent Israeli
purchase of the Imperial Hotel and other buildings
is good news for Israel's nationalist Homeland
party.
It's a real estate rush and who
is going to get more - the Palestinians or the Jews?
Homeland party member
They have been moving Jewish families into Arab East
Jerusalem for several years.
They have a simple aim: To acquire enough buildings
in key parts of east Jerusalem so that Israel can
keep the entire city forever.
"When we take those [buildings] away from the
Palestinians we're saying no - those footholds and
strongholds are not going to be in your hands
forever and ever," Homeland party member Uri Bank
said.
"We're taking them away and it's a chess match. It's
a real estate rush and who is going to get more -
the Palestinians or the Jews?"
No-one quite knows what happens now. It is certainly
hard to tell when the seller has disappeared and the
buyer has yet to come forward.
Desperate wait
Meanwhile, Abu Walid Dajani is
waiting to find out whether he will be evicted from
his hotel or whether the sale will be made void.
For now, he sits in his office next to the lobby,
from where he has a good view of everyone coming up
the steps.
"What happens if one day up these stairs the new
owners come and say 'Thank you very much, but it's
time to go'?" I asked him.
Tears filled his eyes. "The only thing that I say is
over my dead body," he said.
"That's all."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4391323.stm
Published: 2005/03/30 07:41:05 GMT
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