Editorial Board| Jerusalem News Agency

The curtain has fallen on the final chapter of the play, or rather the conspiracy to leak the Orthodox endowments of Bab al-Khalil, and Patriarch Theophilus, his lawyers and spokesmen continue to clownish and lie about this case, with premeditation, as if he is its fiercest defender, while he has liquidated the majority of the Patriarchate’s properties and endowments in the country in general, and in Jerusalem in particular, to Zionist institutions and entities active in Judaizing Jerusalem and changing the character of the land in Palestine in general.

We note here that the settlement companies were the ones who took the initiative to go to court, not Theophilus, who did not take the initiative to do so, but rather the complete opposite, immediately after his election as Patriarch, by dismissing the case filed by the deposed Patriarch Irineos to cancel the shameful deal. Moreover, he dismissed him and imprisoned him inside the Patriarchate until the end of the deliberations in the courts, and he even went so far as not to summon him to testify before the court, especially since he is the person accused of concluding the shameful deal and he is the most important witness in the case.

Therefore, Theophilus should be held accountable not only for the outcome of the court, but also for the deliberate negligence on his part and that of his lawyer that led to the loss of the case in court.

sequence The case

The case came to light in March 2005, when Hebrew newspapers published news about a conspiracy deal to sell five properties in Jerusalem, including the Imperial Hotel and the Petra Hotel, located in the Bab al-Khalil area and directly adjacent to Omar Ibn al-Khattab Square during the reign of the former Patriarch Irineos.

2008 – The settlement companies submitted a request to the court (Case No. 2035/08) to confirm the legality of the deals for 3 out of 5 properties. The trial continued for years, during which the Patriarchate recognized the other two deals signed with the settlement companies.

7/30/2017 – The Central Court in Jerusalem issues a decision confirming the legal validity of the deals in favor of 3 settlement companies in 3 locations (Imperial, Petra, and Beit al-Mu’adhamiya in Bab Hutta). The decision clearly indicates the Patriarchate’s collusion with the settlement companies and confirms its failure to provide legal permits and the deliberate absence of witnesses on its part, including the Patriarchate’s lawyers at the time (Al-Maghribi’s office), and the waiver of legal claims that it had made in its response list to the court, the most important of which is the absence of a unanimous decision approving these deals.

10/29/2017 - Following the previous decision of the Central Court, the Patriarchate filed an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, repeating its flimsy and weak claims, and in our estimation for no other reason than to confirm the aforementioned decision of the Central Court by a decision issued by the Supreme Court and to transfer the control of the settlement companies over the Bab al-Khalil properties as a final and irreversible matter.

10/6/2019 – The Supreme Court issued a decision rejecting the Patriarchate’s appeal from 10/29/2017. Thus, the Israeli Central Court’s decision No. 2035/08 became a final and binding decision. We wrote a new legal report confirming the Patriarchate’s complicity, reinforced by the judge’s decision’s indications of the Patriarchate’s complicity and failure to defend its right to the properties.

5/8/2019 – Two months after the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the Patriarchate’s appeal against the Central Court’s decision (2035/08), and based on the statement of Ted Bloomfield, Theophilos and the Patriarchate filed a new case with the Jerusalem District Court against the three settlement companies affiliated with Ateret Cohanim (who were the plaintiffs in case 2035/08), in which Theophilos and his Patriarchate claimed that the Central Court’s decision was issued with fraud and deception, by obstructing the judicial process, false testimony, and concealing documents.

6/24/2020 - The Central Court decided, after holding a preliminary hearing for both parties, to reject the request of the Patriarch and the Patriarchate for several reasons, including that the statement of the so-called Ted Belmofeld does not refer to what is known as the Bab al-Khalil deal, but rather to a key rights sale agreement that took place in 1996 (the Petra Hotel), while the agreements that are the subject of the case were signed in 2004, and that he was not present when the Bab al-Khalil deals were concluded, and he was not aware of their course.

9/8/2020 - The Patriarchate filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the Central Court’s decision issued on 6/24/2020.

8/6/2022 - The Supreme Court rejected the appeal with a final decision, in which it indicated that the new evidence presented proves the existence of corruption in the Patriarchate, but its connection to the Bab al-Khalil deal does not exist.

It is a painful farce and play that has been under wraps since Theophilus assumed the patriarchal seat and backed down from his written commitments to Jordan and Palestine, and fully implemented his commitments to the Israeli side. The chapters of the play were crystal clear and unambiguous, not by way of analysis or slander, but by reading the minutes of Theophilus’s sessions with the official committees and Israeli institutions to recognize him as patriarch and the commitments he presented to them and implemented, doubling down in the interest of the state and Israeli settlements with dozens of concluded sales deals.