May 15, 2024
The Dubious Land Deal Threatening East Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter
By Finn Cooley
In April 2023, the community learned that an Israeli real estate company would soon construct a hotel on one-fourth of their land. “Progressively, we will lose everything.”
(Ahmad Gharabli / Getty)
When he was growing up in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem, Kegham Balian spent Easters watching different Christian denominations fight turf battles in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in the Christian faith. Life in the Jerusalem of Balian’s childhood was complex and contentious, but it was also “quite the scene,” said Balian, now an adult.
It is a scene that has rapidly changed since then. In the past few decades, Jerusalemite Christians—a diverse group comprising Armenians, Palestinians, Ethiopians, and others—have endured harassment and violence from increasingly emboldened Israeli extremists who believe non-Jews should be expelled from the city. “It’s not conducive to maintaining the Christian population” in Jerusalem, Balian said. “You’re treated as a second-class citizen.”
For Balian, the tipping point came in April 2023, when he learned that the Armenian Patriarchate, which oversees the affairs of the community, had inexplicably struck a secret deal with an Israeli real estate company to build a hotel on one-fourth of the Armenian Quarter’s land. “It’s a plot of land [in our possession] since the 1300s and bought with blood, sweat, and a lot of fights,” Balian said. “To have it whisked away with a simple signature—it’s ridiculous.”
