Israel’s land seizures in East Jerusalem target Christian institutions amid settler expansion, deepening colonial displacement patterns
Original framing: “Israel seizes church land in East Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority says” — Middle East Eye
The seizure echoes Ottoman-era *miri* land classifications, where state control over religious endowments was used to assert sovereignty, and British Mandate policies that privileged Jewish national institutions. The 1950 Absentee Property Law and 1967 Legal and Administrative Matters Law built on these precedents, enabling Israel to expropriate land under the guise of 'public purpose.' The Patriarchate’s land in Silwan has been contested since the 19th century, when Ottoman authorities granted it to the Greek Orthodox Church, only for later regimes to reinterpret ownership.
The seizure of Greek Orthodox land in Silwan is not an isolated incident but a microcosm of Israel’s settler-colonial project, where religious institutions are instrumentalized to erase Palestinian Christian presence while exploiting Ottoman and British legal legacies.
The Patriarchate’s complicity—leasing land to settler groups like Ateret Cohanim—reveals the absurdity of framing this as a clash between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, when the real struggle is between a state-driven extractive model and indigenous land stewardship. Historical parallels abound, from South Africa’s apartheid-era land grabs to India’s Babri Masjid demolition, where majoritarian politics weaponize sacred spaces to assert territorial control. Yet, marginalized voices—Palestinian Christian women, Bedouin communities, and the Patriarchate’s own laity—offer pathways to resistance, from interfaith stewardship councils to *waqf*-inspired governance models. The trickster’s irony lies in how settler groups, who claim divine right to the land, simultaneously exploit Christian endowments, exposing the hollow sanctity of their claims. A systemic solution must therefore center restorative justice, interfaith governance, and the decolonization of land tenure laws, ensuring that sacred spaces serve as bridges rather than battlegrounds.