While Gaza is under attack and tensions between Palestinian and Israeli communities in Jerusalem are well known, Jerusalem’s Christian Armenians say they are battling for their own existence. Campaigners trying to protect Jerusalem’s historic Armenian Quarter from development deals say attacks on the city’s minority Christian population are being ignored.
“They will keep on expanding and expanding until the Armenian presence no longer exists,” they say. “When we say it’s an existential battle, it truly is.”
“We don’t feel comfortable in our own quarter anymore,” says Kegham Balian, writer, ceramicist and media coordinator of the “Save the ArQ” movement, a campaign to protect the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem from an illicit land deal made in 2020.
Friction between Palestinian and Israeli communities in Jerusalem is well-documented. But the plight of Christians, especially Armenian Christians, in Jerusalem is lesser known.
“We’ve had a presence here since Armenia adopted Christianity as its official state religion, in the 4th century CE,” says Kegham. “We are the only continuous and uninterrupted presence in the Old City of Jerusalem [since then].”
In the year 301 CE, Armenia became the world’s first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion. After this, Christian Armenians made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and an Armenian presence was established in Jerusalem.
Today, Jerusalem’s Old City is made up of four quarters – the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, the Armenian Quarter occupies about a sixth of the area within the ancient walls and is home to around 1,000 Armenians. (A further 1,000 Armenians live in Jerusalem outside the Old City.)
Kegham’s family, who moved here in 1919 from Kütaya, in Turkey, were commissioned by the British Mandate of Palestine to restore the tiles on Dome of the Rock, a 7th Century Islamic monument.
Along with two other families, the Ohannessians and the Karakashians, the Balians developed a unique artform, today known as the Armenian Ceramics of Jerusalem.
While the Armenian community has faced decades of discrimination in Jerusalem by hardliner Israeli nationalists, in recent years, the threat has become existential due to a secretive land deal signed by the Armenian Patriarchate, an autonomous see (diocese) of the Armenian Apostolic Church, four years ago.
Two small jugs made by the joint workshop of Armenian pottery families Balian, Karakashian and Ohannessian. Photo by Nicholas Johnson via Flickr.
The nature of the deal
In March 2020, the Armenian Patriarchate signed a contract covertly with the Municipality of Jerusalem, leasing out 90 parking spaces to residents of the Jewish Quarter in the Cow’s Garden, a vital plot of land used by the Armenian community for parking. The deal was to last ten years, with the possibility of renewal after the lease period was over.
“If you know Jerusalem, parking spaces are gold because of their scarcity,” says Kegham. “The deal seemed fine at face value.”
However, a clause in the contract stated that in the event that a property developer should want to build in the area, the deal with the Municipality would be annulled. Unfortunately for the community, this is exactly what happened.
In July 2021, three members of the Armenian Patriarchate secretly leased the plot to the Israeli real estate company, Xana Gardens Ltd, for 98 years, in exchange of $2 million, with annual remunerations of around $300,000. The company had plans to build a ‘seven-star’ hotel on the plot.
As rumours of the deal spread, the three signatories Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, Archbishop Sevan Gharibian, and the real estate director who presented the deal to the Patriarchate, Father Baret Yeretzian, quickly became targets of public anger. And the movement gradually gained traction over the coming years, as more information about the deal emerged.
The Armenian Patriarchate. Photo by Jorge Láscar via Flickr.
Father Baret was dismissed as real estate director in January 2023 and defrocked four months later.
“We literally chased him out of his residence,” says Kegham. “There was a huge commotion, the entire crowd was in a frenzy.”
Archbishop Nourhan argued he had been duped into signing the deal and had not known the magnitude of the contract.
Father Baret, on the other hand, said in an interview with the Palestinian-American journalist Daoud Kuttab, that he felt “betrayed” by the Armenian Patriarch, maintaining that he finalised the deal with the Church’s “full knowledge and authority”.
Following a presentation of the contract’s details in July 2023, and after months of community rallies and public pressure, the Patriarchate finally sent a cancellation letter to Xana Gardens on 26 October, 2023. Little did they know this would escalate into violence a few days later.
Escalations in 2023
When Israeli property developers visited the Quarter on 5 November, 2023, it caused alarm amongst the Armenian community.
“Representatives of Xana Gardens arrived on the premises and demanded that we leave the parking lot,” says Kegham. “They brought armed settlers with them, automatic rifles, dogs and pepper spray, just to intimidate us. If it was a normal deal, that’s not how you would take property.”
In January 2024, Save the Arq’s co-founder Hagop Djernazian was assaulted by a man who allegedly had connections with Xana. The assailant was issued two restraining orders in the coming days, and the incident prompted the campaign’s legal counsel to prepare a court filing and legal package to help protect the Quarter from future settler intimidation and violence.
For more than 500 days now, the Armenian Quarter has been constantly guarding the Cow’s Garden (known as Goverou Bardez, this plot of land historically served as a sanctuary for Armenian refugees following the Armenian Genocide), with community members taking turns to camp out each night.
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The makeshift barracks has developed in size and comfort over the months, thanks to community efforts and generosity. “A family would have a sofa they didn’t need and would donate it,” says Kegham. “Or a toaster, a small fridge – anything was recycled.”
The area in question comprises around 11,500 square metres, including the Cow’s Garden; five residential houses of families who fled the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century; the seminary, where the Armenian Genocide is commemorated; the hall of the Patriarchate; and the Patriarch’s own private garden.
In total, the deal concerns about a quarter of the territory. If Xana Gardens successfully push through with their development plans, the community says the entire Armenian Quarter would be at risk of disappearing.
“They will keep on expanding and expanding until the Armenian presence no longer exists,” Kegham says. “When we say it’s an existential battle, it truly is.”
Community pushback and internal tensions
The community filed a class action lawsuit to invalidate the lease with Xana Gardens on February 18 last year. Hagop Djernazian and Setrag Balian (Kegham’s brother) have been spearheading the campaign.
The legal team includes local lawyers Eitan Pelag and Sami Ersheid, and the international firm, Kerkonian Dajani LLP. The discovery period, whereby the findings will be presented in court, is set to take place in September this year (2025).
“That will tell us more about where each party stands,” says Setrag. “We are positive and confident that we have very strong legal grounds and strong legal arguments,” he says. “This is confirmed by independent analysts and lawyers.”
According to the constitution of the Patriarchate, it is illegal to lease out any land for more than 48 years, yet the deal with Xana Gardens is signed for 98 years. Moreover, any deal made concerning a lease between 25-49 years should be made strictly with the consultation of the St James Brotherhood, the monastic order governing the Patriarchate, which did not happen.
The 12th-century Armenian Cathedral of St. James. Photo by Pablo Gonzalez via Flickr.
Significant legal progress was made with the discovery of a waqf, an inalienable, charitable endowment under Islamic law which is recognised today in Israeli courts. Registered in the 16th century by Patriarch Andrea and his nephew Patriarch Tavit, who acquired land for the Quarter, the waqf specifically states that the land must pass back into the hands of the Armenian Christian community in the absence of a relative to inherit it.
Inevitably, the lawsuit and protests have caused friction between the Patriarchate and the community.
“The community was left out [of the deal],” says Kegham. “If we hadn’t mounted protests, if we hadn’t pushed back these bulldozers, the representatives of Xana Gardens would be smoking hookah in the parking lot and enjoying the entire territory.”
“Usually when someone messes up on this scale, the very least you can do would be a press conference, to explain to the community what happened,” he adds, “but there’s been nothing since then, only stalling tactics.”
“We’re not asking for financial compensation, we’re not suing for money,” says Setrag. “We’re asking for declaratory judgement, so that the contract is considered null and void.”
Fund-raising and outreach
The community have been relying on donations made through the Tatoyan Foundation Center for Law and Justice to fund the lawsuit, often travelling abroad to raise awareness and publicity around the issue.
On their recent US east coast tour, fund-raising was done through different events in the community and also private events with donors. All the money raised has gone directly to funding the lawsuit.
“We met with a lot of the Congress people and senators, from both sides of the aisle, so it was very bipartisan,” says Setrag, “We weren’t concentrating on one party.” Destinations included New York, Boston, Washington DC and Chicago.
Previous outreach has included talks by the Armenian diaspora in Australia and parts of Europe.
“It’s becoming a global Armenian issue,” Setrag says. “But of course, it’s also a Christian issue. And it’s also a Jerusalem status quo issue. It has broader implications.”
Patriarchs and Heads of Church in Jerusalem issued a statement in February condemning the deal and expressing their solidarity with the Armenian Christians in the Quarter.
The bigger picture – persecution of Christians in Jerusalem
The lawsuit against Xana Gardens is not the only threat to the Armenian presence in Jerusalem. Christians of all denominations in Jerusalem have long been persecuted by Israelis, and while the situation has been exacerbated by the current Israeli government, Kegham says he has felt this discrimination since he was a child.
“They spit on the Armenian Quarter, they pee on our walls, they write graffiti saying, ‘You are ‘goys’ meaning gentiles,” he says. “They say death to Armenians, death to Arabs – you name it. All kinds of hateful content.”
Graffiti in the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem, reading “Death to Arabs”.
Clergy are particularly affected, due to their attire and visibility. But the frequency of these assaults has left the community desensitised to them.
“It shouldn’t be normal to be desensitised to it, but here we are,” says Kegham. “Of course, when it happens, we don’t just sit back, we fight back. But it just goes to show that living in Jerusalem is becoming increasingly difficult.”
The minority status of Christians in Jerusalem (with a population of around 13,000, as of 2023), limits the publicity they receive, even where the wider Christian community is concerned.
“In the US, you have all these hardcore Christians, who are supposedly Christians, but when you talk to them about the plight of Armenians, or even all Christians in Jerusalem, it’s as though they’ve never even heard of them,” says Kegham.
“They think that Israel as a nation is a beacon of freedom of religion. But it’s not at all.”
While certain rights of Christians are protected by Israeli institutions, it remains an uphill battle for any non-Jewish community in Jerusalem, whether it be attaining permits for religious holidays or law enforcement and protection.
Kegham recalls an incident prior to the deal with Xana Gardens. “A few extremist settlers came and pepper sprayed us,” he says. “We pepper sprayed back and started chasing them towards the police station, located near the Armenian Quarter.”
But as they approached the station, the settlers shouted ‘pigua’, meaning terrorist attack in Hebrew. “Immediately we raised our hands, we were not armed,” he says. “The police pinned my friend to the ground, hit him with the stub of a gun, and took him to prison.”
As for punishment for Israeli citizens, Kegham claims there are very rarely repercussions, which further reinforces their sense of impunity.
“Israel has to take more responsibility in preventing these attacks,” he says. “They have to protect the Christian presence in Jerusalem, if they want to uphold the values they purport to believe in, namely the freedom of religion in the Holy Land.”
Lacuna contacted Xana Gardens offering a right of reply but received no response.
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Main image of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock by b k via Flickr.
