The city of Jerusalem, Israel, may seize and auction off real estate belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem due to a tax dispute with the church.
The church may lose property they have “owned for centuries” due to the church allegedly not paying municipal taxes for decades, a press release by the Chancellery of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem said Tuesday. An administration hearing over the church’s petition to stop the process is set to occur Monday. (RELATED: Trump Admin Investigates Alleged ‘Jew Hatred,’ ‘Support For Terrorist Organizations’ At 9 Universities)
We desperately urge you to share yet another Urgent Communique. Targeted and crippling taxes against the religious entity of the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem are being unjustly levied. This crushing threat can become a precedent set against ALL Christian Communities of Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/1ZH7sScmvE
— Armenian Patriarchate Of Jerusalem (@ArmenianQuarter) February 18, 2025
The Armenian National Committee of America called this prospect “a direct threat to the survival of the 1,700+ year old Armenian Christian Quarter and all the faith-based communities of the Holy Land” in a post on social media.
Israel is set to tax, seize and auction off properties that have been owned for centuries by Jerusalem’s Armenian Christian Patriarchate – a direct threat to the survival of the 1,700+ year old Armenian Christian Quarter and all the faith-based communities of the Holy Land. pic.twitter.com/QlWU7yIc3r
— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) February 18, 2025
The church claimed in its press statement that the disputed sum “has never been proven in judicial proceedings” and that the debt violates “the statute of limitation.” The patriarchate added that they were unjustly and selectively targeted by the authorities and demanded that the Israeli government “immediately freeze all action taken by the Municipality [the City of Jerusalem]” against them. They also demanded that the government resume its meetings with the churches with the object of diplomatically obtaining “an amicable resolution” to the dispute.
This is not the first time that taxation of church property has stirred contentions in the City of David. The city of Jerusalem’s announcement back in 2018 that it would seek to impose taxes on church property led to both the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and heads of churches issuing vigorous and public protestations. The heads of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox churches all proclaimed that the decision was “a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land.”
Israel officials claimed the issue was a routine financial dispute. Churches in Israel are major landowners and were traditionally exempt from paying property tax. The city’s 2018 decision to impose taxes on the church was meant to apply to land that the church owned but was not using for worship purposes. The city claimed at the time that some of these properties were used for commercial practices, Yeshiva World News reported.
“The financial damage caused to Jerusalem over the years following the state’s position [to not tax church and UN property] is close to 1 billion [shekels]. It is inconceivable that the residents of Jerusalem will have to finance municipal services for garbage collection, lighting, gardening and paving roads, and will prevent the municipality from collecting huge sums that could have helped significantly develop the city and improve services for the residents,” then-Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat said.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
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