ALARM OVER PLAN TO TRANSFER JERUSALEM LAND TO RUSSIA
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
VA
Sergei’s Courtyard in Jerusalem (Photo by Julie
Stahl/CNSNews.com)Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – To the dismay of many
Israelis, the cabinet on Sunday voted to approve the transfer of nine
acres of prime property in downtown Jerusalem to Russia.
The building and garden, known as Sergei’s Courtyard, were purchased
by Russian royalty in the 1800s and have passed through a number of
sovereign hands through the years.
For more than a decade, Moscow has been demanding that the property
be handed over to the Kremlin.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in Russia this week, has told
Russian officials of the Israeli government’s decision to turn the
land over to Russia, a spokesman said/
But many Israelis are unhappy that Olmert will get nothing in return
for the "gift" that he’s giving to the Russian government.
There is a public outcry demanding to know why this step was taken,
said Jerusalem City Councilman Nir Barakat.
"I can clearly say that it’s against the interest of the City of
Jerusalem. It’s weakening Jerusalem," Barakat told journalists in
Jerusalem on Monday. "It [sets] a precedent for future demands of
other people for land in the center of the city, and I think it’s a
bad deal."
Israel considers Jerusalem to be its undivided, eternal capital.
The Russians secured the compound from the Turkish Ottoman Empire in
1858 to be used for pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. It was confiscated
by the Turks during World War I, requisitioned by the British after the
war, and passed on to Israel following its War of Independence in 1948.
In 1964, Israel purchased 90 percent of the land from the Russian
Orthodox Church. But Sergei’s Courtyard, named for the Grand Duke
Sergei Alexandrovich, the son of the tsar, was not included.
When diplomatic relations between Israel and Russia were restored in
the early 1990s, negotiations began on the property.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that former Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to transfer the land as a way of
improving relations between Israel and Russia and restoring a climate
of cooperation and cultural affinity between the nations.
"It was a gesture meant to create goodwill" and not a deal for
which Israel would receive something tangible in return, Palmor
told CNSNews.com.
Some Israelis are trying to stop the deal from going through. The
Legal Forum for the Land of Israel appealed to the High Court this
week to stop the transfer of the property, said the Forum’s attorney
Itzhak Bam.
The legal group argues that Olmert, as the prime minister of
a caretaker government, has no authority to make such a big
decision. Olmert resigned as prime minister last month, but has not
yet stepped down.
The court is expected to discuss the appeal on Sunday, said Bam.
It’s not clear that the property really does belong to Russia,
Bam added. Russia should have taken its claim to court and not to
political leaders, he said. But beyond that, Bam said, Israel has no
business giving Russia such a gift.
"Russia plays an extremely negative role in the Middle East and
Israel. It sends weapons to Iran and Syria. The weapons [reach]
the hands of Hezbollah [and are used against Israel]. Russia is not
friendly to Israel. Russia strongly supports all the forces that
[want to] destroy Israel," Bam charged.
It is an act of "supreme stupidity" to give Russia the property as a
gift. Russia will take Sergei’s Courtyard and continue to sell weapons
to Iran and Syria. It is clear that if Russia wants to reassert itself
as a superpower in the Middle East, it will continue to sell weapons,
he said.
"[Getting the properties back] is seen by Russia as an important step
in resuming its past greatness, back to its imperial role in the Middle
East," said Bam, who immigrated to Israel as a child from the former
Soviet Union. "Israel doesn’t have to help them to make this step."
Land in the Holy City
Jerusalem is unique in the world. During its history, all the churches
tried to consolidate their hold on the Holy City by buying land. So
did the Russian Orthodox Church, said Israel Kimhi, from the Jerusalem
Institute for Israel Studies.
There was a kind of a competition between the European powers to
acquire land, he said.
A lot of land is owned by various churches here, with the Greek
Orthodox Church being the biggest owner, Kimhe told CNSNews.com. The
Italians, Germans, Russians and Armenians are among those who also
owned land here.
Around the Old City of Jerusalem alone, churches own thousands of acres
in bits and pieces. They also own lands in Jaffa, Ramle, Nazareth,
and near the West Bank city of Hebron but most of the properties are
in Jerusalem, Kimhe said.
The Greek Orthodox Church owns properties, which it has allowed
Israel to use under to long-term lease agreements. Those properties
include land on which the Knesset, the prime minister’s residence
and a Jerusalem neighborhood are built.
The Israeli Ministry of Labor and the Society for the Protection of
Nature in Israel are currently based at Sergei’s Courtyard.
Putin was so interested in this little corner of Jerusalem that he
visited the compound when he was in Israel in 2005. "It’s troubling
that an international power is looking at such a small courtyard,"
said Kimhe.
In an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Monday, the editors wrote
that the Israeli government should be able to exercise the right of
eminent domain over the "relics of yesteryear’s imperialism" as it
does over its own local residents.
If Russia can claim to be Sergei’s heir, even though his holdings were
explicitly designated as private, then can’t Israel claim the property
that "the self-same Sergei forcibly took from 30,000 Muscovite Jews
whom he cruelly expelled from the city mere months after his Jerusalem
guest house went up?" the paper asked.
There is no reason for Israel to turn Sergei’s Courtyard into a
possible "de facto extraterritorial Russian toehold in our capital,"
it said.
"Capitulation to Moscow in this matter, apart from being unlikely to
purchase Russian goodwill on the critical Iranian issue, could well
open up a Pandora’s Box of other territorial demands," the Post said.