The Independent (UK) - The man who sold Jerusalem

[Englander]

The secret sale of a priceless plot of land in the Holy City has
threatened the fragile balance between the religions. Donald Macintyre
reports on the Greek Orthodox priest accused of selling out his
Palestinian flock for Israeli gold

10 May 2005

These are tense times for Abu Walid Dijani, proprietor of the New Imperial Hotel. The Arab hotel, one of the oldest in Jerusalem despite its name, has been at the centre of the city's turbulent history many times, thanks to its strategic location just inside the Jaffa Gate,.

From a balcony here in December 1917, General Edmund Allenby looked across Omar Ibn al Khattab square after dismounting his horse outside the walls and entering the Old City on foot to mark its liberation from the Turks.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the hotel housed a small cinema, and its elegant ballroom was a favourite Palestinian wedding venue. In 1967, during the Six-Day War, it was occupied and used as a base by Israeli troops, then returned to the Dijani family, the tenants of the property, which is owned by the Greek Orthodox Church. But during more than a century the old hotel has never faced a greater threat.

For it is at the centre of an international scandal which has infuriated the Greek government and may yet help sabotage the chances of a comprehensive peace settlement to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. It has also fuelled local demands from the Church's angry flock of 200,000 for the Greek hierarchy to be replaced, as in other Christian communities, by Arab prelates.

More at;
The Independent

[pelsar]

1. i dont understand the problem

as far as i understand the transaction was to a jewish person.....am I missing something? or is being jewish mean you cant buy land in certain places?