Posted on 08/21/2025 11:53:30 AM PDT by ebb tide
(ZENIT News / Jerusalem, 08.20.2025).- The decision by Jerusalem’s municipality to freeze the bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has thrust one of the Holy Land’s oldest churches into financial paralysis, intensifying a long-running dispute over property taxes and exposing once more the fragile standing of Christians in the region.
The measure, imposed on August 6, prevents the Patriarchate from paying clergy, teachers, and employees across its schools, monasteries, and charitable institutions. It also aggravates the decades-long struggle over land ownership, taxation, and the political weight carried by churches whose roots predate the modern State of Israel by centuries.
At the heart of the confrontation lies “Arnona,” Jerusalem’s property tax. For generations, churches had been shielded from such levies, a status quo respected by Ottoman, British, Jordanian, and Israeli authorities. That understanding began to fracture in 2018, when city officials sought millions of shekels in back taxes for properties not used strictly for worship or religious instruction. Guesthouses, cafeterias, and service facilities for pilgrims were suddenly treated as taxable assets. The resulting standoff grew so severe that the custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed its doors in protest, a dramatic gesture that forced then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene.
This time, however, the Patriarchate has received no such reprieve. City hall argues that patience has run out: years of notices were ignored, and the church failed to meet its obligations. “Administrative enforcement procedures were initiated,” municipal officials said, describing the step as unavoidable.
The Patriarchate, led by Patriarch Theophilos III, denounces the freeze as an assault on religious institutions that sustain not only Christian life but also broader social needs. Through its schools, clinics, and welfare programs, the church often fills gaps left by the state, it argues. Theophilos, together with Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, co-leads the advocacy group Protecting Holy Land Christians, which insists that the imposition of municipal taxes undermines centuries of precedent and weakens the Christian presence in Jerusalem.
The dispute unfolds against a backdrop of rising hostility. The Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, a Jerusalem-based interfaith institute, documented 111 attacks on Christians in Israel in 2024, up from 89 the previous year. Clergy in religious dress were particular targets, suffering assaults ranging from spitting and pepper spray to outright beatings. The majority of incidents were attributed to members of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious Jewish movements.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, settler violence has taken on an increasingly sectarian edge. In July, radicals attacked the majority-Christian village of Taybeh, torching a fifth-century church and drawing condemnations from both local patriarchs and American political figures traditionally aligned with Israel’s right wing. Senator Lindsey Graham and former U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee both urged accountability for the perpetrators, describing the acts as sacrilegious.
The Greek Orthodox Church’s difficulties extend beyond taxation. In Jericho, settlers recently invaded monastic lands, prompting a diplomatic protest from Athens, which regards the protection of Orthodox heritage sites—from the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai to the shrines of the Holy Land—as part of its national responsibility. The Armenian Patriarchate also faces a looming legal battle with Jerusalem’s municipality over its own properties in the Old City.
For many Christians of Jerusalem—most of them Arabs of East Jerusalem with only permanent resident status—the financial freeze is more than a bureaucratic dispute. It symbolizes the erosion of their already tenuous foothold in a city where they cannot vote in national elections and risk losing residency if they leave for too long. “Our very continuity feels at stake,” said Armenian activist Levon Kalaydjian. “This isn’t just about land. It’s about identity, tradition, and the heartbeat of a community that has endured centuries.”
In his Assumption Day homily at Abu Gosh, Cardinal Pizzaballa echoed that sentiment, reminding the faithful that amid war and destruction, Christians are called to “sow life” even when the “dragon” of evil seems overwhelming. His words underscored the paradox of a church struggling to meet payroll while also being asked to carry the weight of hope in a land scarred by conflict.
Ping
You left out a few details.
The voters of Jerusalem changed the tax exemption for ALL religious institutions (Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze) in 2018, limiting it to properties used strictly for prayer or religious teaching, excluding commercial activities like guesthouses and coffee shops.
They made this change because everything in the town was falling apart.
Everybody else has been paying their taxes on commercial activity for 7 years.
The Greek Orthodox apparently think they are special.
The Israeli govt’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has thrust one of the Holy Land’s oldest Christian churches into financial paralysis, and exposes once again the fragile standing of Christians in the Jewish region.
The Aug 6 Israeli dictate, prevents the Christian Patriarchate
<><>from paying Christian clergy, teachers, and employees
<><>within its Christian schools, monasteries, and charitable institutions.
<><>it also aggravates the decades-long struggle Israeli agita over land ownership, taxation,
<><>and the political weight carried by Christian churches
<><>Christian roots predate the modern State of Israel by centuries.
<><>it exposes once again the fragile standing of Christians in the Jewish region.
“The Rossing Center... documented 111 attacks on Christians in Israel in 2024, up from 89 the previous year. Clergy in religious dress were particular targets, suffering assaults ranging from spitting and pepper spray to outright beatings. The majority of incidents were attributed to members of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious Jewish movements”
I have heard of this spitting on Christian believers by the religious Jews many time. The religious Jews, called “Pharisees” in the Bible, also spit on and mocked Jesus after they pressured the Romans to crucify Him.
What is fascinating is that we have had several similar property tax issues right here in USA, identical really.
Such as,
1. does a church vineyard qualify for the religious property tax exemption?
2. does it qualify to escape taxation if it sells most of its product into the commercial, retail marketplace instead of using it for sacramental purposes inside the church?
3. we had a regular winemaker complain bitterly about his neighbor church-owned vineyard have an “unfair competition” advantage by being tax-exempt selling the same kinds of wine to the large retail (grocery) accounts. (And that winemaker came from a generations-old member family of the church running the tax-free business next door.)
4. does a private university (privileged by a state statute to be tax exempt) qualify for that tax exemption on the proceeds of a bookstore it runs on campus for its students to get their textbooks?
5. does that same private university still get its tax exemption on a bookstore it opens OFF campus, one catering to the general public and selling everything from mystery novels to comic books? You know, just like the three nearby bookstores that, being owned by regular private citizens, have to pay regular taxes on their businesses.
6. more examples abound.
Interesting questions!
(and despite the general tenor of the article, there is an underlying problem with the cleric at that particular Greek Orthodox church in Israel, in that he is pretty consistently hostile while most Christians in the country are very glad to be welcome there — unlike how so many Christians have been run out or murdered in several nearby countries where, as the article says, they lived for a long time...)
6.
It’s the Israeli “settlers” who think they are special.
“I have heard of this spitting on Christian believers by the religious Jews many time.”
I think you mean certain sects of non-Zionist Haredi Jews.
They attack, spit on, and are general dicks to everyone, especially IDF soldiers, other Haredi Jews (especially if they serve in the military), the police, etc.
The Satmar are a prime example of these guys. They meet with Iran’s mullahs.
They’re currently rioting because they demand exemption from the draft. As in right now, they are in the streets. Huge dicks.
Yeah, we get you don’t like Jews.
I suppose you think it’s cool for this church to avoid paying taxes on its hotels.
The Catholic Church pays taxes on its commercial activities in Jerusalem.
Are you saying the Bishop there is wrong?
Did you read the article?
They want to collect back taxes prior to 2018.
bkmk
Hasn’t this been refuted about 7 times on FR?
“ In July, radicals attacked the majority-Christian village of Taybeh, torching a fifth-century church”
Duplicate posting. See about 7 articles down page.
The article is poorly written.
There are back taxes due, but from 2018 to date.
Again, so why do all the other churches, synagogues, and mosques have to pay taxes on commercial activities, but the Greek Orthodox get to free ride?
Are they special? Better than, say, the Catholic Church who dutifully pays its municipal taxes?
Or are you just posting stuff because you don’t like Jews?
What’s with all the FReepers trying their hardest to stoke animosity between Jews and Christians?
It wasn’t this way for 20 years prior.
Now we’ve got all these wack jobs finding any possible wedge and driving it as deeply as they can.
Unhelpful.
“What’s with all the FReepers trying their hardest to stoke animosity between Jews and Christians?”
I think it’s, at most, 3-4 prolific posters, possibly one or two with multiple screen names.
Some are very clearly foreign because they can’t use idioms.
Angelino97 is hardly worth breath. The guy is a Buchanan supporter from the ‘80s. What a loser. Dumber than a box of rocks. But he is enough of a persistent anti-Semite that ai eventually felt forced to engage. Which just makes me stupider every time I read something he writes.
This is not good for Jewish Christian relations “anyway you cut it.”
I hope a resolution over multiple disputes is forthcoming.
I don’t see how this effects Christian-Jewish relations in any way.
The law in Jerusalem is the same in the USA. Commercial activities of churches, synagogues, and mosques (like hotels and restaurants) are taxed, just like everyone else.
All the other churches, synagogues, and mosques pay their taxes. After all, it’s for municipal services like roads, police, ambulances.
This particular denomination thinks it is special and refuses to pay taxes.
I don’t see how this effects Christian-Jewish relations in any way.
******************
I probably won’t. Current relations have been good and will most likely stay good.
It looks like the municipal government changed the law recently (2018) and the Greek Church isn’t happy about having their historic tax exempt position changed.
As far as the Jewish dicks that attacked Christians 200 times between 2024 & 2023.
Nothing can be done because those people are the poster children for bigot & bigotry in any dictionary.
They’ll never change.
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