It is the end of almost twenty years of legal battle for real estate in Jerusalem. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled and validated the acquisition, by an organization of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers, of buildings previously belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. According to the Church, there was deception in this case.
With our correspondent in Jerusalem, Sami Boukhelifa
It all started in 2004, when Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish settler organization, seizes three Church properties in the Old City of Jerusalem. These are two hotels: Petra and the Imperial, located in the Christian quarter, as well as a residential building, which is in the Muslim quarter.
This association of settlers has an undisguised objective: to “Judaize” the eastern part of Jerusalem, in other words the Palestinian part, by buying as many goods as possible there. But to achieve this, she must hide her identity, because Christian or Muslim Palestinians living under occupation generally refuse to sell their homes or land to Israeli Jews.
Acquisition of property through front companies
Last October, during the global “Pandora Papers” scandal, ShoMriman Israeli organization of investigative journalists, which participated in the international investigation, reveals the method of the settler organizations: They use shell companies, therefore fictitious, to hide their identity and acquire real estate in East Jerusalem. »
This ” method is dishonest and illegal “, denounces the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. But his appeal has now been rejected by Israel’s highest legal body.
►Read: Pandora Papers: an organization working to facilitate Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem cited