Jerusalem Christians Rally Around Armenian Church over Land Deal

At the heart of their Quarter lies the ornately decorated St. James’s Cathedral, which dates to 420 A.D., strung with precious lamps and often infused with the haunting singing of its black-cowled monks.

The Quarter covers a sixth of walled Jerusalem and houses just 1,000 people, a fraction of the Old City’s 35,000-strong population.

Armenian locals say the land lease project would consume not just their carpark, the largest open space in the Old City, but also their community hall, the patriarch’s garden, the seminary and five family houses.

“The Armenians have been here since the 4th century, but we now risk being uprooted,” said Hagop Djernazian, 23, a student, who is part of a group guarding the carpark night and day, with barbed wire strung out to try to keep out developers and settlers. “We are having to fight for our existence,” he said.

Daniel Seidemann, an activist Israeli lawyer who closely monitors the spread of Jewish settlers around Jerusalem, said the project was aimed at expanding the footprint of the Jewish Quarter across half the Old City.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordanian forces in a 1967 war. Israel regards the entire city as its eternal and undivided capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

“We are aware of a plan to encircle the outside the Old City with settlement projects. We suspect this Armenia Quarter deal is meant to be a continuation of this plan inside the city walls,” Seidemann told Reuters.

“However, there is so much irregularity surrounding it that there is a good chance the courts will reject it.”

Police Arrest 3 Armenians

In a related story, On November 15, at around 4:30 p.m., a motorcade of settlers on 4×4 vehicles and motor bikes, which were by all accounts sent by Xana representative George Warwar, encroached on the Cows’ Garden premises (“Goverou Bardez”).

Members of the Save the ArQ movement immediately alerted the entire Armenian community of Jerusalem to surround the barricaded perimeter in order to stop the trespassers. The Israeli police and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived on scene and the settlers scattered, with only a few remaining on site, in a malicious attempt to change facts on the ground. The outraged Armenian community attempted to peacefully — with neither any intention nor any directive to resort to any violence from community leaders — demand that the trespassers vacate the property belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Israeli police, without probable cause, proceeded to arrest 3 Armenian Jerusalemites, including a 17-year-old minor. Two adult arrestees received a 15-day stay-away notice forbidding them to be within 50 meters of the Cows’ Garden.

Instead of removing the trespassers, the Israeli police permitted a few settlers to continue their presence intended to possess the Armenian property. In response to the incursion, Armenian community members — despite being asked to disperse — formed a human shield and peacefully urged the aggressors to vacate the Cows’ Garden.

Meanwhile, according to a November 15 communique from the Chancellery of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, a legal note sent on November 6 ascribed a false, defamatory and libelous quote to Bishop Koryoun Baghdasaryan, who supposedly made such a statement to Danny Rothman on November 5 in the Cows’ Garden.

The next day, November 7, a widely read Israeli media outlet known as Y-net published an article referring to this supposed statement. However, Armenian community members contacted the author, pointing out that the bishop had never been contacted to confirm or deny the quote, and the article was edited henceforth to remove this reference.

Rothman submitted the fabricated quote to the police department, which summoned Bishop Baghdasaryan for investigation.

According to the Chancellery, Baghdasaryan never spoke with Rothman, and the bishop is preparing to sue Rothman for defamation.

The Chancellery on November 16 issued a new communique noting that “In recent days, the vast destruction and removal of asphalt on the grounds of the Armenian Quarter has been done without the presentation of permits from the municipality by neither the developer nor the police. Despite this fact, the police have chosen in the last few days that all members of the Armenian community vacate the premises. We plead with the entirety of the Christian communities of Jerusalem to stand with the Armenian Patriarchate in these unprecedented times as this is another clear step taken toward the endangerment of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.”

These disturbing developments continue to be an existential crisis and a clear attempt orchestrated by Israeli settlers, George Warwar, and Danny Rothman, to intimidate and displace and evict a 1700-year-old community from its ancestral home.