United States lawmakers, including both Democrats and Republicans, issued a letter this week to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, condemning Israel’s advancement of the “properties bill” that aims to nationalize residential areas of Jerusalem being sold by the Greek Orthodox Church to private entrepreneurs.
The bi-partisan letter, signed by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D) and seven congressmen from both sides of the aisle, demanded that the American administration do everything “within its power to work with the government of Israel to resolve this matter and ensure a lasting resolution of the church properties issue.”
A statement from the church, signed by senior Jerusalem Christian leaders, called on the international community to intervene and stop Israel from nationalizing the properties.
The controversial bill, put forward by Member of Knesset Raḥel Azaria (Kulanu) and signed by 61 Israeli lawmakers, came in response to the church’s sale of roughly 124 acres, containing the homes of more than a thousand Jerusalem families, to an anonymous group of investors.
In the early 1950s, the church had leased these Jerusalem properties to the Jewish National Fund for 99 years. The JNF then sub-leased the land for residential homes.
Although the lease periods are scheduled to end in the coming decades, the church has already sold parcels of the properties in a move that impacts the lives and futures of current residents.
It was reported that even before the lease periods have ended, families are facing uncertainty over mortgages and the maintenance of properties.
Azaria’s “properties bill” proposes that the rights to land leased to the JNF or any other party by the Greek Orthodox Church, and then sold, would go to the state, which would in turn compensate whomever bought the properties from the church.
Azaria, a former Jerusalem city councilwoman and deputy mayor, has made clear that she intends to protect the residents living on the disputed lands.
“This proposal will give a response to the thousands of residents of Jerusalem and other cities who all of a sudden found out that the homes that they owned were on land that was sold to someone unknown,” she said.
“We will not let private or foreign factors buy such broad swaths of the land in Israel’s capital.”
