Court halts Patriarchate plan to sell prime Jerusalem land after 25-year delay
Investors say they were sidelined in renewed effort to develop Emile Botta Street property.
A group of Israeli investors led by attorney Yehuda Talmon has received a temporary injunction from the Jerusalem District Court preventing the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate from selling land it owns in the heart of Jerusalem to an unidentified foreign company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The deal between the Greek Patriarchate and the Israeli investors dates back to 1999, when the Patriarchate signed a development agreement for land it owned on prestigious Emile Botta Street, near the King David Hotel and the French Embassy in West Jerusalem. The land in question spans about five dunams and is considered a highly sought-after real estate asset.
Under the agreement, the investors were supposed to receive rights to approximately one dunam of the site, which was estimated to include around ten residential apartments. However, the original development deal with Israeli company Avital Properties never materialized. A subsequent agreement with another developer, Nof Tzamerot, also failed to progress.
Recently, after more than 25 years of inactivity on the project, attorney Talmon, representing the investors, began exploring options to preserve their contractual rights and requested the registration of warning notices at the Land Registry over the remaining plots, acting as trustee for the group.
However, according to the investors, the Land Registry Office refused to register the notices and demanded documentation that had not been required when the original warnings were filed. At the same time, the investors discovered that the Patriarchate had begun advancing a sale of the land to a foreign company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Following this discovery, the investors filed an urgent request for a temporary injunction, which the court granted ex parte. At a hearing scheduled for July 14, the Patriarchate will be required to explain the sale process to the foreign company, amid allegations that it is effectively bypassing the Israeli investors’ contractual rights.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate holds extensive land assets in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem. According to past reports, it owns nearly 40% of the land in East Jerusalem. Historically, most of these holdings were acquired in the 19th century. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, about 10% of the land in West Jerusalem was under the control of the Greek Orthodox Church. Lease agreements were later signed with the Jewish National Fund for large portions of this land, including well-known transactions involving the Rehavia and Talbiya neighborhoods.
