Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed

Jerusalem Post ^ | February 25, 2018 | Mordechai Sone

[richardtavor]

Christian leaders today took the rare step of closing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, in protest of Israeli tax measures and a proposed property law.

The decision was made in protest against the bill, which is expected to be discussed today by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, allowing the State to expropriate land that the churches have sold since 2010, as well as to protest the Municipality's intention to collect municipal property taxes.

"We are following with concern the systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land, in flagrant violation of the existing status quo," the church leaders wrote.

It was not immediately clear how long the closure of the church, announced by Christian officials at a news conference which began around noon, would last.

[richardtavor]

I posted this article to make sure that it is understood what the story is about. The Churches in Jerusalem are portraying this as some type of Israeli Taxes on Churches. That it is not. What has been happening for some time is that the Churches are selling extremely valuable church property to build Hotels, businesses, buildings, etc., and have wanted to have their tax exemption transferred with the properties. The Israeli Government has never imposed a tax on any Church, Mosque, Synagogue for any building that has a purpose of worship. They never will. However, they are trying to prevent the abuse of this policy by organizations that are trying to sell their properties for operational funds. Notice that the first thing they do is to accuse the Israelis of being Nazis: "This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during a dark period in Europe."taking advantage of it. The Mayor stressed that the tax would be collected only from properties that do not have churches or any other kind of prayer houses. The Churches responded by politicizing it: "As a measure of protest, we decided to take this unprecedented step of closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre," Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Catholic leaders said in a statement. They said recent Israeli measures seemed to be "an attempt to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem".

[PlateOfShrimp]

Thanks for clarifying! I guessed it was something like this. Sad to see some of the churches falling into this.

[Atticus]

Render unto Caeser?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

This clarifies why so many different religious organizations occasionally get into big fights over the Church. It’s because it’s not about the Church but about all of the graft that’s been attached to it.

[richardtavor]

A similar situation that I am familiar with. I grew up in Dallas, TX a few decades ago. The YMCA had a 17 story building in the middle of Downtown Dallas (605 Ervay Street) that housed a major YMCA Facility, but also had low cost housing to the indigent. It was demolished a few years ago and was replaced with a modern mixed use complex. It became perhaps the most expensive real estate in Downtown Dallas. How much more could the YMCA (or the First Baptist Church across the street) have commanded if it had its tax exempt status preserved? How much lost revenue would the city of Dallas had?

[tlozo]

“they are trying to prevent the abuse of this policy by organizations that are trying to sell their properties for operational funds”

Not completely accurate. Bill taxes church land previously tax exempt(some of it hotels or vacant) and also allows Israel to take land(currently vacant) from the Christian Church.

“bill that would give the Israeli government power to confiscate church property. The ‘Bill of Church Lands’, sponsored by Israeli settler groups and signed by 40 members of Israel’s Knesset, was branded ‘discriminatory and racist’ as well as ‘abhorrent’ in the strongly worded statement signed by Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem”
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/jerusalems-church-of-holy-sepulchre-shuts-indefinitely-amid-fierce-row-with-israel/126376.htm

[Ezekiel]

Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed

Traditional location of:

Matthew 27:59-60

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Interesting times!

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Similar to US tribes, particularly non reservation, who acquire property, commercial and non commercial, to be put in trust by the Dept. of Indian Affairs taking them off local real estate rolls.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Jeremiah Jr]

Christian leaders today took the rare step of closing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, in protest of Israeli tax measures and a proposed property law.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve ELoHIM and mammon.

Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve ELoHIM and mammon.”

Christian leaders, clearly an oxymoron.