By Alexander Pracht and Paul Vartan Sookiasian
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued an urgent communique yesterday warning that the Jerusalem municipality is attempting to seize and auction properties it owns outside the Old City over alleged unpaid property taxes dating back to 1994.
According to the communique, an administrative mediation hearing is scheduled for next Monday as the Patriarchate seeks to prevent the foreclosure of properties it has owned in West Jerusalem for centuries.
If the Patriarchate’s petition is rejected, the municipality will proceed with seizing and auctioning the real estate to collect what the Patriarchate describes as “disputed debts that have never been proven in judicial proceedings.”
The petition specifically challenges the actions of a municipal collection officer who it says has determined the Patriarchate to owe an “astronomical” amount of money, allegedly without considering the statute of limitations or providing clear documentation of the debt’s origins. The Patriarchate notes that a significant portion of the disputed debt relates to a property currently leased to the Jerusalem municipality itself.
The communique calls on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, and governmental committee head Tzachi Hanegbi to intervene immediately and halt the municipality’s actions against the Patriarchate.
The properties in question are not part of the Cow’s Garden dispute in the Armenian Quarter, a strategically vital property adjoining the Patriarchate that is at the epicenter of protests against an attempt to lease it to developers. This tax issue adds to the pressure on the Armenian community, at a time when they warn the Armenian Quarter’s continued existence is endangered.
Just on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Jerusalem, where he told a representative of the Patriarchate that the United States will do everything to ensure the Christian presence in Israel remains stable, preventing a repetition of the massive decline in population that has befallen them elsewhere in the Middle East.
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