Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre church closes in protest of Israeli tax - Polidicks

[quote]The heads of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, considered the holiest site in Christianity, have shuttered its doors to protest against a new tax and a piece of Israeli legislation that will allow the government to confiscate church land. In the rare step not seen for close to three decades, church leaders accused Israel of a “systematic and unprecedented attack against Christians in the Holy Land”. Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Catholic leaders, who jointly manage the vast site in Jerusalem’s Old City, complained of plans by the city’s municipality to modify a religious tax exemption that they said was “an attempt to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem”. Separately, they complained of a “discriminatory and racist bill” being considered by Israeli legislators that would allow church property to be claimed by the state.[/quote] [url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/25/jerusalem-holy-sepulchre-church-closes-tax-protest-israel[/url]

The Israeli government? Discriminatory? Well I never.

That must be a crappy situation if all the leaders agreed to close down the church for the time being. Doesn't the Holy Sepulchre require all the major Christian denominations religious leaders to agree in order to do anything that effects the church?

[QUOTE=Trebgarta;53159912]Three words[/QUOTE] I know. I was meaning that I don't know how the situation is in terms of Christian relations to the Israeli government and vice versa. If they all gathered together and agreed to act then it must be a credible threat.

[QUOTE=RedBaronFlyer;53159868]That must be a crappy situation if all the leaders agreed to close down the church for the time being. Doesn't the Holy Sepulchre require all the major Christian denominations religious leaders to agree in order to do anything that effects the church?[/QUOTE] Yes, it's pretty rare for all the church leaders to agree on one action. For example, this is a thing: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immovable_Ladder]The Immovable Ladder[/url]

Some context: The Greek Orthodox Church owns huge swaths of land in Israel. In fact it is the second largest land owner in Israel following the Israeli government. Recently it started selling off all that land in secret deals that leave everyone in the dark about who now owns all this land. This leaves Israel in a very weird situation where it could end up with a lot of land owned by people or entities with their own agendas, which is especially problematic since there are lots of people currently living in houses on this land who could potentially end up losing their homes, and some of it is even leased to the government itself and used for government institutions. Since the church is completely unwilling to negotiate with the Israeli government on these sales it has forced the government into considering other solutions such as confiscating church land [B]sold to private investors[/B]. Keep in mind that this is a proposed law that's [B]hasn't actually passed[/B] yet. The church obviously doesn't like that. More here. [URL="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/02/565464499/greek-orthodox-church-sells-land-in-israel-worrying-both-israelis-and-palestinia"]https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/02/565464499/greek-orthodox-church-sells-land-in-israel-worrying-both-israelis-and-palestinia[/URL]

[QUOTE=ScumBunny;53160900]Some context: The Greek Orthodox Church owns huge swaths of land in Israel. In fact it is the second largest land owner in Israel following the Israeli government. Recently it started selling off all that land in secret deals that leave everyone in the dark about who now owns all this land. This leaves Israel in a very weird situation where it could end up with a lot of land owned by people or entities with their own agendas, which is especially problematic since there are lots of people currently living in houses on this land who could potentially end up losing their homes, and some of it is even leased to the government itself and used for government institutions. Since the church is completely unwilling to negotiate with the Israeli government on these sales it has forced the government into considering other solutions such as confiscating church land [B]sold to private investors[/B]. Keep in mind that this is a proposed law that's [B]hasn't actually passed[/B] yet. The church obviously doesn't like that. More here. [URL="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/02/565464499/greek-orthodox-church-sells-land-in-israel-worrying-both-israelis-and-palestinia"]https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/02/565464499/greek-orthodox-church-sells-land-in-israel-worrying-both-israelis-and-palestinia[/URL][/QUOTE] No Church should own that amount of land, Jesus. Especially on land that is occupied by tax paying citizens. I understand if the Israeli government was seizing whole churches, but from what I interpret it it just means excessive church land. If they aren't doing anything sketchy with the land selling though I don't see any harm in it, though I can certainly see why Israelis would be concerned.

Update: [URL="http://www.jpost.com/jerusalem/Jerusalem-halts-taxes-that-led-to-closure-of-Church-of-the-Holy-Sepulchre-543772"]http://www.jpost.com/jerusalem/Jerusalem-halts-taxes-that-led-to-closure-of-Church-of-the-Holy-Sepulchre-543772[/URL] [QUOTE] The Jerusalem Municipality announced on Tuesday that is will halt its church property tax collection efforts in light of a decision that was made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mayor Nir Barkat to form a commission to find a solution to the issue. It was decided that Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi will head the special commission to solve the issue.[/QUOTE]