Armenian heritage threatened by Jerusalem hotel plan

While the world’s attention is concentrated on Gaza, an at times violent battle for the historic Armenian quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City has been playing out on the streets over several months.

The simmering dispute escalated anew in April when Israeli police entered an area that Armenian protesters have been guarding from developers for several months. The Old City and its walls are a Unesco World Heritage site.

‘Unlawful eviction’

“An unlawful eviction was initiated by Israeli police on the grounds of the Cows’ Garden located within the premises of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” the Armenian Patriarchate said in a statement on 3 April. “The eviction began with the destruction of Armenian Patriarchate property, and assaults on clergy and indigenous Armenians.”

The Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s request for comment.

The conflict—now also the subject of two lawsuits—centers on a planned luxury hotel development at Cows’ Garden, a former agricultural area that was converted into a community parking lot in 1967. It adjoins the 12th-century St. James Monastery, as well as five Ottoman-era houses in a courtyard compound abutting the historic city walls. One of these is home to a family with ancestral ties to the area dating back more than 1,600 years.

Armenian monks first settled in Jerusalem in the fourth century. The Armenian quarter, comprising around 14% of the Old City, was home to 27,000 people a century ago, as numbers swelled after the Ottoman Empire’s genocide against the Armenian people. Only around 2,000 still live there, but it remains a spiritual homeland of sorts for the wider Armenian diaspora.

Unesco concern

The Old City and its walls, which have been on Unesco’s “world heritage in danger” list since 1982, are part of East Jerusalem, where the majority of residents are Palestinian. According to a 2021 report by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, of the Old City’s 35,000 residents, 27,000 are Muslims, 5,000 are Christians and 3,000 are Jews.

While all of Jerusalem has been under Israeli control since Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the Six-Day war in 1967, Palestinians view it as the capital of their future state. The international community considers the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem illegal.

The dispute over Cows’ Garden dates back to a 2021 deal signed by the Armenian patriarch Nourhan Manougian, in which he handed over 13% of the historic quarter to a company called Xana Gardens for a hotel development. The Armenian community found out about this transaction a year ago.

Two members of the community, Hagop Djernazian and Segrat Balian, founded a protest movement, the Save the Armenian Quarter (ArQ) association. ArQ first protested outside the office of the Patriarchate demanding full transparency, then in recent months took shifts guarding the site from developers and groups of settlers.

Ambiguous contract

Djernazian says that an ambiguous clause in the contract allowing Xana Gardens to include “adjacent properties in the project” means a much larger area is at risk. This comprises the private garden of the patriarch as well as a modern seminary building, erected in 1975. Underneath the seminary are Roman ruins unearthed in 1960 by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, as well as a crusader palace.

“You can’t build a modern hotel within the ramparts of the Old City,” Djernazian says. “It could damage the whole structure and status quo of the Old City. It will not be a hotel but a settlement. It’s a provocative act.”

Xana Gardens is based in Tel Aviv and led by the Australian Israeli investor Danny Rothman, who has consistently declined to speak to the press. The company does not appear to have a website. Rothman did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s request for comment.

Cancellation

After months of protests, Manougian cancelled the agreement in October. A 16 November statement by the Armenian Patriarchate said the contract he signed in 2021 was “tainted with false representation, undue influence, and unlawful benefits”.

Since the cancellation, the Armenian community says its members guarding the site have been attacked on several occasions. On 26 October, bulldozers entered the car park to dismantle the pavement, damaging part of a wall in the process. They were turned back by members of the Armenian community. In December, violence erupted. The Middle East Monitor reported that around a dozen people were injured when a group of men attacked residents.

Lawsuits

The Patriarchate has filed a lawsuit against Xana Gardens to be heard in the Jerusalem District Court. A second lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Armenian community on 18 February.

The state of Israel has also joined the legal fray, according to a February statement by two Israeli NGOs, Bimkom and Ir Amim. They said it recently emerged that Israel had initiated the official registration of land rights within the Armenian Quarter of the Old City.

“If the Xana Gardens company were successful in taking possession of this area at the alleged behest of settlers, it would dramatically alter the character of the environs and significantly damage the unique historic identity of the Armenian Quarter,” says Amy Cohen at Ir Amim. “Such a move would likewise serve as another link along the growing ring of Israeli control in and around the Old City.”

ArQ plans to appeal to Unesco, Djernazian says. “We are of course aware of the legal procedure that is under way,” Polina Huard, a spokeswoman for Unesco, tells The Art Newspaper. “The State of Conservation Report on this property will be brought to the attention of the World Heritage Committee at its next session in July 2024.”