Which is a point well taken.
However, this problem, in Jerusalem, while of a more ordinary type, can be quite serious. I believe that the Church should be exempt from as many charges as possible, because it brings in huge revenues for the city, from pilgrims and tourists.
Backdating the water bill seems more like extortion. That being said, this should have been worked out long before it became a problem. If there was an agreement, the Church should have got it in writing. Otherwise our Lord might have told us to render onto Caesar the things that are Caesar...
Where’s Moses whe you need him “and he smote the rock and water came forth”.
What many people don’t realize about this issue, is that the Church isn’t exactly owned by any of the religions there. Nor is it exactly without management, to explain the bizarre arrangement between the Christian Churches over who has responsibility over what in the Holy Sepulcher would literally take an immensely long post.
It has literally been both the collective responsibility of six Christian church denominations which are not in communion with each other, and at the same time not a unified responsibility. This is because each has its own faction which vehemently protects its own fief from encroachment by the other factions. There have been literal battles inside the church between clergy over who has the right to remove a single ladder from one place.
In fact, neither one of them can open the doors to the Church every day. That responsibility has for well over 100 years fallen to a prominent Muslim family that opens the Church every day.
One can find no where else the biggest visible sign of Christian scandal than the factionalism that exists over the site of the crucifixion and burial of Christ.
Sounds like a shakedown to me.
Perhaps the Church should freeze the right for the Kenesit to meet on Church property until the issue is cleared up.
After all the Israeli Congressional Building is built on land that the Church owns the deeds to. Perhaps the Church could strike up a new land rental value equal to the fresh water value and backdate it the same amount of time.
Then everyone wins, the Bean Counter recovers Millions of dollars for the State, which he can then use to pay off the huge bill to the Church...
(Once trust is violated, its pretty hard to regain)
is there a contract the was signed by an authorized representative of the church agreeing to the monthly water charge?
if not... the only thing the company can do is cut off water and demand a contract be established
otherwise, anyone can make anything up and pretend to be owed the money
In Muslim countries the Church suffers the hard persecution of actual martyrdom, beatings, torture, outright theft and vandalism of Church property, in the secular West (of which Israel is a part) the Church suffers soft persecution: firings for wearing crucifixes or offering to pray with patients or clients, mockery in the media, water bills when a traditional agreement provided water free of charge...
It’s not just the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the city in Kansas where I live the water plant stands on land that was granted to the city in a bequest on the condition that water be provided to churches and schools free of charge. The city started billing churches for water last summer. (Quite frankly, I hope the heirs of the family come back and get a judgement seizing the water plant.)
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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My guess the issue, longstanding, will be resolved. At least in the short term. I don't really have an opinion on who should pay for water in Israel, local issue, but only a moron would turn off the faucet.