East Jerusalem – Activists say a controversial deal to build a luxury hotel could destroy part of East Jerusalem’s historical Armenian quarter, accusing the company behind the plan of paying people to seize land by force. As Armenian Christians celebrate Christmas on Saturday, those who call Jerusalem’s Old City home say they are worried for their future. FRANCE 24’s Andrew Hilliar and Mélina Huet report.
In a corner of Jerusalem’s Old City near the Cathedral of Saint James, the fight for a plot of land has become tied to the future of the Armenian quarter.
It is the spot where survivors of the Armenian genocide found a safe haven more than a hundred years ago.
But in 2021 a Jewish-Australian investor signed a deal with a representative of the Armenian clergy to build a luxury hotel. Now activists are trying to save this land from demolition.
“Basically we are fighting for our existence,” says Hagop Djernazian, a student and co-founder of Save the ARQ, an NGO dedicated to preserving the Armenian Quarter.
“People think this is just a regular parking lot, but it’s not a regular parking lot. This is land that we’ve been the owners of for more than 700 years.”
Members of the Armenian community say the hotel deal is illegitimate because they were not properly consulted.
Some of them, like Djernazian, sleep in tents, keeping watch day and night.
He accuses the company behind the project, Xana Capital, of sending a mob to scare local residents away. A violent mob was filmed attacking members of the Armenian community and the clergy last week before Israeli police intervened and arrested more than a dozen people.
A senior representative of Xana Capital did not respond to a request for comment.
Jewish extremists have also ramped up attacks on the Old City’s Armenian population, ever since a far-right government came to power in Israel just over a year ago.
"Holy places are being vandalised by settlers and extremists," Djernazian says. "Clergy are being attacked, community members are being attacked, and all this happened recently – in the past [year]."
With a presence stretching back more than 1,600 years, Jerusalem’s Armenians are more determined than ever to hold on to their land.
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