JERUSALEM — Jewish settlers, a shady Australian developer and a defrocked priest. This unlikely cast sits at the heart of a multimillion-dollar real estate deal that has caused an uproar within Jerusalem’s ancient Armenian community and mobilized its youth in an unprecedented campaign to defend their land.
The legal case to sink the deal, which would see a long-coveted chunk of the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem fall into suspect hands, is inspiring Christian and Muslim Jerusalemites as they face down Messianic Jews bent on eradicating their presence in the bitterly contested city, now through dubious real estate deals. Armenian resistance to that long-running effort has spurred repeated attacks by masked thugs hired to intimidate the activists and revived gripes from the community about the conduct of the Armenian church, all of which has caught the attention of diverse foreign governments amid the conflict in Gaza.
A dwindling population of around 1,500 Armenians lives in the quarter that is wedged between the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, making it a prime target for Jewish acquisition. Like other non-Jews in the city, they face assaults from Jewish extremists who, emboldened by the current far-right coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, rough up and spit at their priests and deface their buildings.
“This is a battle for our very existence. A battle for the future of Jerusalem. It’s a battle to maintain its identity as a city of peace, a city of justice, of security and freedom of worship for all,” said Setrag Balian, founding member of a communal advocacy group called Save the ArQ.
