The Israeli high court of justice has rejected the appeal filed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and sanctioned the sale of three real estate assets in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem to the pro-settler Ateret Cohanim group.
The rejection of the appeal on Monday ended a 14-year-long legal battle surrounding the sale of the assets which has agitated the Greek Church in Jerusalem.
Ateret Cohanim is a right-wing organization that strives to acquire Palestinian property in the Old City for Jewish settlement. With Monday’s decision the group can dramatically strengthen its hold on the Old City’s Christian Quarter.
The story began in 2005 when Maariv newspaper published a report about the sale of the three buildings including the Petra and Imperial hotels overlooking the Jaffa Gate plaza at the entrance to the Old City.
The Maariv story rattled the Greek Church and prompted it to oust Patriarch Irenaeus who considers the ousting illegal and insists to this day that he is the patriarch.
The new patriarch Theophilus III rejected the transaction and claimed that it involved corruption and bribery and lacked church authorization. The patriarchate said that Irenaeus did not receive the approval of the Synod Council to carry out the transaction. It also affirmed that their finance director Nikolas Papadimos had received money from Ateret Cohanim to advance the deal and had committed acts of theft and corruption involving patriarchate funds.
The patriarchate also argued that the price paid for the buildings by Ateret Cohanim is significantly lower than their market value.
A year ago the Israeli district court rejected these claims and approved the transaction but criticized Ateret Cohanim for failing to bring the organization’s chairman Matityahu Dan to testify.
After the defeat in the district court the patriarchate appealed to the high court. Last week the patriarchate’s lawyers reiterated the claims of bribery corruption and lack of authorization but the court on Monday rejected the appeal and approved the transfer of the buildings to Ateret Cohanim.
However the court confirmed the patriarchate’s claims that Papadimos had received $35000 from Ateret Cohanim and criticized Dan’s failure to testify.
