‘There’ll be no Christians here in 50 years’: Faithful fight to reclaim Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter

Atop the roof of the Petra Hotel, almost every major Christian site and denomination in Old Jerusalem is visible, from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection and the centre of world Christianity, through to the lowly Swedish Christian Study Centre.

Located by the ancient city’s Jaffa Gate, where the Christian Quarter meets the Armenian Quarter, the strategically located hotel and its neighbours, Little Petra and the Imperial Hotel, are at the heart of an epic legal battle that local Christians said epitomises their struggle to cling on in this holiest of cities.

“The problem of Jaffa Gate is the problem of the coming generations for hundreds of years,” claimed Abu Walid Dajani, the proprietor of the Imperial Hotel. “Fifty years from now, there will be no Christians in Jerusalem. I can see Jerusalem, unfortunately… it’s a cemetery.”

The fight over the hotels came as Christians in Jerusalem face a demographic crisis and alleged increasing harassment from radical Jewish groups in the city.

Members of the clergy and local Christians that The Telegraph spoke to described regular incidents of verbal abuse, vandalism and spitting, as well as rare occasions of violent assault.

The decades-long property battle

The property dispute dates back nearly two decades. At its heart are a series of deals done under the previous head of the Greek Patriarchate in Jerusalem in 2004 and 2005, in which key properties across the city were sold to Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish settler group which seeks to “reclaim” land in Jerusalem for Jews.

The Patriarchate, backed by the 12 other major Christian denominations in the Holy Land, insisted that the deals were the result of corruption and blackmail.

Irenaios I, the Patriarch at the time, signed over power of attorney to Nikolas Papadimos, an official in the finance department who made the deals with Ateret Cohanim.

When the sales came to light, Irenaios I became the first Patriarch in two centuries to be removed from office, while Mr Papadimos fled to South America.

Despite multiple attempts, including visiting the home of its leader, Mati Dan, The Telegraph was unable to get a response from Ateret Cohanim.

Two factors have created renewed urgency. Ten days before The Telegraph visited the Petra Hotel, members of Ateret Cohanim forced their way into Little Petra in the middle of the night and occupied it.

On the day that The Telegraph visited, scorch marks were still visible on the door into Little Petra, whilst from inside the Petra Hotel, a single Jewish man was visible next door, through a broken window, dressed in a kippah, prayer shawl and tefillin and praying.

When The Telegraph spoke to one of the settlers, he had limited English and was unwilling to talk to journalists. Whilst he provided a phone number to call, no one picked up.

The second factor is a looming Supreme Court case in which the Greek Patriarchate will attempt to have the case reopened. Since the court last considered the case, a whistleblower has come forward, allegedly disgruntled at Ateret Cohanim’s failure to pay him, detailing supposed corruption by the group in the mid-Nineties.

Lawyers for the Patriarchate admitted that it does not prove that the 2004 and 2005 deals were corrupt, but they hope to demonstrate a pattern of behaviour and, crucially, to get Mr Dan in the witness box.

‘I have bad dreams every night’

While the court battle continues, Mr Dajani and the other protected tenants in the affected properties face their own legal fights to fend off what they said are attempts to force them out of their properties.

Sitting in his office in the Imperial Hotel, Mr Dajani told The Telegraph that for 18 years since the dispute began, he has lost sleep from it: “From that day on, bad dreams every night. Just bad dreams. I wake during the night two, three times.”

If the case is lost, the Christian community faces the prospect of losing control of a key area of the Christian Quarter where pilgrims enter on their route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Christian churches start their processions.

The Patriarchate insisted that the row is not about preventing Jews from living where they want to, but stopping a co-ordinated attempt to change the character of the old city.

They point, as an example, to the former St John’s Hospice. Just 250yds east of the Jaffa Gate, it is the prime example of what the Christian church fears could happen across the quarter.

On the lintel above the entrance is the tau-phi monogram of the Greek Patriarchate, yet the vast building is bedecked with multiple Israeli flags, the windows barred and the stonework crumbling.

In 1990, this hostel for pilgrims was taken over by Ateret Cohanim, causing uproar among Christians and Muslims, and led to the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in protest.

Yet, more than 30 years later, it remains in settler hands and is the Jerusalem home of Mr Dan.

The Telegraph was able to enter St John’s Hospice and see inside, although attempts to contact Mr Dan, including leaving calling cards, were unsuccessful.

The former hostel, which once would have housed dozens of pilgrims, is now full of settler families, their clothes horses lining every hallway and a sports hall set up in what once would have been a communal space for pilgrims.

Sited where it is, it has come to resemble a settler fortress directly abutting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

As well as a repeat of St John’s, Christian leaders fear that if the area around Jaffa Gate is taken over by radical settlers, acts of hostility towards Christians will continue.

Koryoun Baghdasaryan, an Armenian priest, told The Telegraph that he is a frequent victim of abuse by radical Jews.

Spitting is so frequent, he said, that it was impossible to remember all the incidents. 

“If I go to the pharmacy and come back, it might happen on the way,” he added. “If I go to the Holy Sepulchre to pick up papers, it might happen. If in the evening I go to visit an Armenian family, it might happen.”

The preferred route for Jewish visitors to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, is within the Armenian Quarter, meaning that interactions between radical Jews and Armenian Christians are more frequent.

‘Death to Christians’ and other acts of harassment

At the far end of the Armenian Quarter, on Mount Zion, Father Nikodemus Schnabel works as a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition. He told The Telegraph how more settlers had moved into derelict buildings around the order’s properties, bringing with them vandalism, littering, abuse and the throwing of projectiles.

“They destroy the tyres of our cars, graffiti ‘death to Christians’, break windows, they desecrate our cemetery, you know… ugly things, and it’s really invasive,” he said.

Both Father Baghdasaryan and Father Nikodemus were clear that this is not about Jews or Israelis in general, but a radical minority, with many Israelis unaware that there is even a problem.

Father Baghdasaryan described how when he was abused by extremists in front of an Israeli crowd in the new city, the crowd turned against the abusers.

“We have so much solidarity because there are many, many wonderful Jews who are ashamed of that behaviour,” said Father Schnabel. “But I see a lack of will among the authorities to really go after [the perpetrators].”

These troubles come at a time when the Christian population of the Holy Land appears to be in relative, perhaps even absolute, decline.

Precise population statistics are disputed and difficult to obtain, but Christians are thought to have gone from about eight to 10 per cent of British Palestine’s population in the Forties to just two per cent in Israel and 2.4 per cent in the Palestinian territories today. 

In East Jerusalem, there are believed to be just 10,000 Christians out of a population of 540,000.

Economic pressures, as well as restrictions placed on Palestinians by Israeli authorities, in particular over family unification, are driving a brain drain, community leaders said.

The Rev Carrie Ballenger, a Lutheran clergywoman for the English-speaking congregation, said that her parishioners continued to shrink from emigration. 

“Eventually, many people decide ‘Enough. I don’t have to deal with this. Why would I put up with this? I can go to Germany, I can go to the United States. And, and have a life where I don’t have this situation’.”

The worry is not that Christianity’s holy sites will be lost. Instead, explained Hosam Naoum, the Palestinian Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, they fear them becoming effective museums with little or no local congregants.

“Without what we call the ‘living stones’, as opposed to the ancient stones which are the holy sites, it will leave us thinking about the Holy Land becoming like Disneyland,” he told The Telegraph.

Few of the figures that The Telegraph spoke to were confident of their chances in the Supreme Court. However, despite their apparent embattled state, they were defiant on the prospects for the local Christian community.

Asked for his view, Patriarch Theophilos told The Telegraph: “Jerusalem is the city of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. St Paul says, ‘If the resurrection of Jesus Christ didn’t take place, our faith is in vain’,” before chuckling and adding: “We believe very much in this. We are the church of the resurrection.”