As the Israeli war on Gaza rages and Israeli attacks on the population of the occupied West Bank continue, the Armenian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City are fighting a different battle – calmer, they say, but no less existential.
One of the oldest communities in Jerusalem, Armenians have lived in the Old City for over 1,500 years, centered around the Armenian Convent.
Today, the small Christian community has begun to fracture under pressure from forces they say threaten it and the multi-faith character of the Old City – from Jewish settlers taunting clergymen as they traveled to prayer until a land deal threatens to wipe out a quarter of their population. land in a luxury hotel.
Chasms have emerged between the Armenian Patriarchate and the largely secular community, whose members fear the Church is not equipped to protect their dwindling population and beleaguered convent.
In the Armenian Quarter is the headquarters of Save the Arq, a structure with reinforced plywood walls adorned with ancient maps inhabited by Armenians who have come to protest what they see as an illegal land grab by a real estate developer.
The lands under threat are those where the community holds events and also where parts of the patriarchy itself are located.
After years of the Patriarchate refusing to sell its land, Armenian priest Baret Yeretsian secretly “leased” the land in 2021 for up to 98 years to Xana Capital, a company registered just before the signing of the agreement.
Xana sold more than half of the shares to a local businessman, George Warwar, who was involved in various criminal offenses.
Community members were outraged.
The priest fled the country and the Patriarchate canceled the deal in October, but Xana objected and the contract is currently in mediation.
Xana sent armed men there, activists say, attacking people, including clergy, with pepper spray and batons.
Activists say Warwar has the support of a major settler organization that seeks to expand the Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The organization, Ateret Cohanim, is behind several controversial land acquisitions in the Old City, and its leaders have been photographed with Warwar and Xana Capital owner Danny Rothman, also known as Danny Rubinstein, in December 2023. Ateret Cohanim has denied any connection to the land deal. .
Activists filed a lawsuit against the patriarchy in February, seeking to have the agreement declared void and the land owned by the community in perpetuity.
The patriarchy refused, claiming that it owned the land.
Armenians began arriving in the Old City as early as the 4th century, then a large wave arrived at the beginning of the 20th century, fleeing the Ottoman Empire. They have the same status as Palestinians in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem – residents but not citizens, effectively stateless.
Today, the new arrivals are mainly boys who arrive from Armenia to live and study at the convent, although many abandon their studies. Clergy say this is partly because attacks on Christians have increased, leaving Armenians – whose convent is closest to the Jewish quarter and along a popular road leading to the Western Wall – vulnerable.
Father Aghan Gogchyan, chancellor of the patriarchate, said he was regularly attacked by groups of Jewish nationalists.
The Rossing Center, which tracks anti-Christian attacks in the Holy Land, has documented around 20 attacks on Armenians, property and churches in 2023, most involving ultranationalist Jewish settlers spitting on Armenian clergy or graffiti reading “Death to Christians” scrawled on the wall. the walls of the neighborhood.
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