EKathimerini, Greece
International Herald Tribube
May 3 2005
New claims raise pressure on patriarch
Irenaios ‘tried to appease Israelis’
The embattled Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem leased Church
property in the holy city to Jewish groups to prove to Israeli
authorities that he does not sympathize with the Palestinians, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday, citing Irenaios’s fugitive
former financial manager, Nikos Papadimas.
The report came just two days after the Israeli newspaper that first
carried claims of the land deal, Maariv, published excerpts of what
it said was the eight-page lease agreement between the Patriarchate
and unidentified foreign Jewish investors.
The alleged deal has infuriated Palestinians who fear it would expand
Israeli control of Arab east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital
of a future Palestinian state. Israel claims the whole city as its
indivisible capital.
Greek and Palestinian officials at the Patriarchate have called for
Irenaios’s resignation, while the Greek Foreign Ministry has strongly
hinted the patriarch should step down.
Irenaios has denied the allegations and accused Papadimas of embezzling
church funds. Speaking to Greek pilgrims yesterday, he once again
maintained his innocence.
“May my hands be cut off if I have stolen,” he said. “Fresh mud sticks,
but once it has dried it falls away… We have betrayed nobody, and
our last breath will be drawn for the Holy Sepulcher… Unfortunately,
there are worms and pieces of rubbish… even among our brotherhood.”
For two years, the Israeli government had refused to approve Irenaios’s
election as patriarch, suspecting him of being anti-Israel and of
having close ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in
November. But in January 2004 – following considerable pressure from
Athens – Israel suddenly confirmed Irenaios in his post and shortly
afterward, the church leader signed over two Palestinian-inhabited
buildings in Jerusalem’s Old City to a Jewish lessee working through
a company in the Bahamas, Papadimas was quoted as telling Haaretz.
Papadimas, who vanished three months ago, is wanted in Greece after
Church officials in Athens accused him of absconding with 600,000
euros in church funds. His wife is wanted on separate charges of
money laundering. The newspaper claimed Papadimas is hiding in the
United States.
Opponents of Irenaios had threatened to disrupt Orthodox Christian
Easter rituals in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Saturday but
were kept away by hundreds of Israeli police, who set up barricades
in the alleys leading to the Jerusalem holy site. This followed
protests by Palestinians on Friday outside the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. Meanwhile, in a fight over precedence inside the church
on Saturday afternoon, Armenian priests attacked Irenaios and his
retinue ahead of the flame-lighting ceremony on the spot Christians
identify as Christ’s grave. (Combined reports)