GAZA CITY, March 23, 2005 (IslamOnlin.net) – Irineos I, the Greek Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), is planning to escape from the Old City in the aftermath of the scandal of selling church’s land to Jewish investors, the church spokesman revealed Wednesday, March 23.

“The recent sale of buildings in Al-Quds to Jews confirms his direct involvement in the land sale scandal,” Bishop Attallah Hanna, a vocal critic of Irineos I, told IslamOnline.net.

“The Palestinians in Al-Quds are boiling over the bargain and call for purging the church from the corrupt.”

On Friday, March 18, Israel’s Maariv daily reported that foreign Jewish investors had paid millions of dollars to buy two large properties at Jaffa Gate, the main entrance to Al-Quds’ Old City, in a secret deal with the Greek patriarch.

The properties currently house two hotels managed by two well-known Palestinian families and a row of shops selling tourist trinkets.

Up to 400 Palestinian Christians demonstrated in Al-Quds Sunday, March 20, to protest the land sale.

The protestors marched from the Holy Sepulchre Church to the Greek Orthodox patriarchy holding aloft Arabic and Greek placards proclaiming: “Keep the Church for the Orthodox Arabs,” and “Yes to the Arabization of the Church.”

Hanna called the reported sale a “horrendous crime” committed against the rights of the Palestinians.

“The sale is null and void because Al-Quds is still under the occupation of the Israelis, who want to Judaize it and obliterate its Islamic and Christian identities,” he added.

Nabil Mashhour, a Palestinian lawyer, said that the lands owned by the church are considered as “waqfs” (religious endowments) that cannot be sold or leased except for the Palestinians, following the same Christian denomination according to the ecclesiastical law.

“Al-Quds, additionally, is an occupied city and international laws prevent Israeli occupation authorities changing its demographic nature,” he told IOL.

He cited law 27 of 1958, which stipulates that eight Orthodox Palestinians alone with nine Greek clerics should supervise the budget and properties of the church in the West and East Banks.

“But the previous patriarch invalidated the law immediately after the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on June 5, 1967, paying no heed to the Palestinians and giving a free rein to the Greek clerics, who later dominated the scene,” Mashhour said.

Arabs represent some 90 percent of the Greek church’s followers, though they are not allowed to assume the patriarchy, which is exclusive to the Greek.

The church owns some 18 percent of West Jerusalem, 17 percent of Al-Quds and 3 percent of the cities of Al-Lad, Al-Ramla, Yafa, and Haifa.

The Palestinian Legislative Council deemed the land sale “null and void” Tuesday and called for expelling the Greek patriarch and Arabizing the church.

“We withdrew our recognition of the Greek patriarch and called for lifting the Greek flag off the church and raising the Palestinian flag instead,” MP Hassan Khureisha told Reuters.

On March 1, a number of Arab Orthodox priests demanded Irineos I to step down, accusing him of making the church a breeding ground for corruption.