By Denis Korkodinov
The Orthodox Church and Tel Aviv are coming to a setback in their relations. The dialogue between them could be broken as a result of a commercial transaction in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The reason for the dissatisfaction of the Orthodox was the intention of the Jewish organization “Ateret Cohanim”, which it is specialized in the resettlement of people in the Old City of Jerusalem and in its eastern part, to evacuate the residents of buildings formerly belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. Specifically, the objects of the dispute were the buildings of the hotel complexes – “Imperial” and “Petra”, located in the immediate vicinity of the Jaffa Gate, as well as a the residential building adjacent to the gates of Herod.
According to the opponents of a the commercial transaction, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem had no right to sell his property. For this reason, representatives of the Greek Church, supported by Moscow, intend to organize full-scale protest rallies in Israel in order to prevent the transfer of buildings to the Jewish organization.
This testifies the fact that in Israel there are now grounds for inter-religious conflicts. Together with the backdrop of confrontation between secular Jews and ultra-Orthodox, and the social unrest with the participation of members of the Ethiopian community, this is the third manifestation of an intra-social crisis in the Jewish state, that is at the risk of great turmoil with a national and religious basis. So even the Israeli National Security Council was forced to intervene in the dispute.
In the conflict over the sale of real estate assets in the Old City of Jerusalem, Moscow is playing an active role, demanding that the buildings be immediately handed over to the Greek Patriarchate. However, Tel Aviv, supporting its position by the decisions of the Jerusalem District and Supreme Court, insists on the legality of the transaction. As a result, the dispute has taken an international importance. And now Israel should face the opposition not only of Moscow, but of all Christians Orthodox, which can put Tel Aviv in a very delicate position, and this is also the opinion of the former head of the National Security Council of Israel, Major-General Jora Eyland.
It is worth noting that the Greek Patriarchate owns real estate not only in the old city of Jerusalem, but also in its suburbs – in Rehavia and Talbiye, which are leased to the National Fund of Israel. Lease of land should expire soon. In this regard, the Greek Church may require the eviction of all residents of these areas, which is fraught with social unrest, as erase Jewish families can fake evictions.
In addition, it is possible that the Greek Patriarchate, and the national government of Greece, supported by a number of Orthodox countries, They will not be limited to the accusation of selling church property. Athens could make a series of additional claims on Israel. In particular Greece could accuse the passivity of Tel Aviv in the Greek-Turkish confrontation about some disputed territories. So, most likely, Athens may require the Israeli government to exert pressure on Ankara in order to block the Turkish installations of oil fields near Cyprus. And Moscow is unlikely to prevent this. In exchange, Greece will not give a strong resonance to the supposed violation of property rights of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.
Perhaps under these conditions, Benjamin Netanyahu will make a deal with Athens. Taking in consideration the backdrop of a political crisis that is threatening him with resignation, as well as the protests of the representatives of the Ethiopian community, an additional source of social discontent in the country is unlikely to contribute to the victory of the Likud party in the upcoming elections.
(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).