Moscow bells in the heart of Jerusalem .. Ukraine ignites the war between Russia and Israel in the holy city

On a Sunday, Holy Sunday for Christians, corresponding to June 12, the Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, and his compatriots prepared for the opening ceremony of the new Russian Orthodox Museum in the building of the Mission of St. Sergius near the Russian compound in the center of occupied Jerusalem.

The museum tells the story of the Russian pilgrims who flocked to the Palestinian territories in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also contains documents and some of the needs of the pilgrims themselves, along with a number of books and photos.

Although a number of protesters against the ongoing Ukrainian war took advantage of the ceremony to demonstrate in the same place and chant the slogan "Glory to Ukraine", the events took place as planned until the time came for the Russian ambassador to unveil a new tablet at the entrance to the museum, when a number of demonstrators disrupted the mission. The ambassador, prompting him to leave without raising the curtain on the board.

The ambassador left the place, but Russia never abandoned its ambitions to recover its ecclesiastical endowment properties throughout Palestine, dating back more than a century and a half.

It can even be said that the timing of the opening of the museum in conjunction with the Ukrainian war was not spontaneous.

Moscow wanted to send a message to confirm the history of the Russian presence in the Holy Land in Palestine and its care for it, coinciding with the tense relations with Israel due to the latter’s bias towards Ukraine. The most famous of them is the "Russian Complex" or "Moscobiya", in reference to "Moscow" or "Moskva" in Russian, after the F was turned into B in Arabic.

Russia .. the Palestinian version

Flag of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society over Alexander's compound in Jerusalem.

(Shutterstock)

If we walk northwest from the Old City of Jerusalem, and walk a few minutes on foot, we will soon find ourselves in the heart of the Moskobiyeh or the Russian Compound, the miniature and holy Palestinian version of Russia built by the Moscow czars for Russian Christian pilgrims nearly a century ago And half a century.

In the early nineteenth century, Russia was quick to acquire a piece of real estate in the Holy Land in the heart of Palestine, under the Ottoman Land Law, which officially allowed the transfer of state land ownership to private property.

At that time, Russia wanted to extend its influence in Palestine due to its religious importance, under the pretext of fulfilling the wishes of pilgrims to the Holy Land.

In turn, the Ottoman Empire granted privileges to the Russians in the city. In 1844, the first Russian Orthodox Archimandrite was allowed to live in Jerusalem (“Archimandrite” is a high-ranking monk who sometimes supervises a number of monasteries).

Three years later, Tsarist Russia sent an ecclesiastical mission to Jerusalem to consider establishing a presence there.

Tsar "Alexander" II was able to persuade the Ottomans to build a Russian consulate in Jerusalem that came to light in 1858 on land leased by the Russians in the belief that it contained what is known as "Ibrahim's oak", an ancient oak tree attributed to the Prophet of God Abraham.

The Tsar appointed a Russian consul to serve his country's interests in Palestine and supervise Russian activities there, such as building offices and establishing institutions to serve Russian pilgrims, especially in the cities of Jerusalem and Jaffa.

The most prominent of these institutions was the Imperial Palestinian Orthodox Society (IOPS), which was inaugurated by Wassily Khitrovo.

Over the next few years, the Russians expanded their possessions in Palestine under the auspices of the tsar, so that by the end of the First World War they had established an extended network of 114 schools, as well as hospitals for the treatment of Russian pilgrims, and others.

The construction of the Russian complex began with stones imported from Russia between 1860-1890, and it includes the Church of the Holy Trinity with its green domes and four distinctive towers, in the same style as the major Russian churches in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which opened in 1872, in addition to one One of the most important parts of the complex is the "Sergi Square and Building", which was built with a large tower (known in Arabic as "al-Tantura" for its height) in 1890 by the Grand Duke "Sergei Alexandrovich", who at the time headed the Palestinian Imperial Orthodox Society and was a brother of Tsar "Alexander" III, so he was named The building and the accompanying plaza are named after it.

The Mission of St. Sergius or the Guesthouse of St. Sergius was built in Jerusalem in 1890 by the Imperial Palestinian Orthodox Association for Pilgrims.

(Shutterstock)

The complex also includes the famous "Dhovnia" building, which was taken by the Orthodox Christian missions as the headquarters of their activities and the site of their own library, before it was used by British Mandate officials after their occupation of the country in 1917, and after them, "Dhovnia" became the headquarters of the Israeli courts in Jerusalem until 1992. The complex contains other courtyards. Such as Mariinsky Square, the inn formerly reserved for women of Russian pilgrims, before the British used its rooms as prisons during their occupation of Palestine, and Elizabeth Square, the hostel for men of pilgrims, which has now become the headquarters of the Israeli police, and Nikolai Square, which was built on More space to host the increasing number of pilgrims.

In addition to all that Russian presence, there is “Alexander Square” inside the Old City of Jerusalem, which is adjacent to the famous Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was built in 1896 and contains the “Alexander Nevsky” Church.

With the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman forces took control of the aforementioned Russian properties, and expelled the complex’s priests and employees, and those properties escaped from the hands of the Ottomans only when they were defeated by the British in 1917, the same year in which the Bolshevik Revolution broke out and overthrew the Russian Empire to be replaced by the Federation Soviet.

The British took the buildings of the huge Russian complex, concentrated in one location surrounded by walls, as the headquarters for most of their administrative tasks within the now occupied land. The second "grad" means "town" in Russian, and is commonly used to name cities such as "Leningrad" and "Stalingrad".

The map of Jerusalem from the Google Maps application shows in the upper left of the Moscow Compound (the Russian complex) within the red lines, and in the center of the image to the right is slightly "Alexander Square" (at the yellow dot) and to the east of it is the Temple Mount.

The Soviets quickly reduced the powers of the Church at home and abroad, coinciding with the British refusal to recognize the authority of the Soviet Union over its property in Palestine. The British Mandate seized the courtyard of Sergei Square and used it as a police station, prison, and government building.

The number of Christian pilgrims dwindled in the Soviet era until they almost stopped, and then it seemed that the page of the Russian presence in Jerusalem had been closed under the rule of communism inside Russia and the expansion of the new Israeli authority.

As for the oldest church that remained under the disposal of the Palestinian Authority as part of an Islamic endowment leased since the Ottoman era, President Yasser Arafat granted it to the Russian mission in Jerusalem in 1997, and there are Palestinian fears that the ownership of the church and the land built on it will be transferred to the settlers.

Russian Palestine..in the grip of Zionism

With the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist gangs and the declaration of the state of "Israel" in 1948, the new occupier appreciated the importance of the Russians in liberating the East from the Turks, and at the same time Moscow realized the importance of the Eastern Patriarchs in serving its political, military and diplomatic interests, which prompted it to allocate financial aid to the Christian Endowment. .

In exchange for the Soviets’ support for the establishment of the occupying state, the latter facilitated the return of all Russian property to Moscow, and then the first Russian Christian delegation arrived in Jerusalem during the Soviet era, and an order was issued by the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1950 stipulating the return of the activity of the Palestinian Orthodox Society in the “State of Israel.”

Over time, the Soviets sold some religious property to the occupation government. In 1964, a property in the center of Jerusalem that was owned by the Moscow Patriarchate was sold along with a number of the buildings of the Russian Compound (west of the Old City of Jerusalem), in exchange for a quantity of Jaffa oranges sent to Russia worth 4.5 million dollars. At the time, the Israelis did not have enough foreign exchange at the time.

For years, the occupying power used Serje Square as the headquarters of its Ministry of Agriculture, and a part of it was allocated to the Society for the Protection of Nature and the Parks Authority until 2012.

After the sale of those properties in 1964, the Russian presence in the complex became minimal, and the Palestinian Orthodox Empire Society maintained an office there, while Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel used to frequent restaurants and bars in the area, which gradually turned into a center for nightlife in Jerusalem with the proliferation of bars And restaurants that often have Russian names.

Over time, Israeli intelligence - at the height of the Israeli alliance with the United States - viewed the complex with great suspicion, and Israeli media reports hinted that the complex's pioneers were actually KGB agents.

In 2008, Olmert searched for a way to persuade the Russians to take into account Israeli interests, and he found no way but to play the card of the Kremlin's desire to restore the ownership of Russian historical religious sites in occupied Jerusalem.

(Reuters)

In 2008, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was anxious for any way to persuade the Russians not to sell weapons to Syria and Iran, specifically the S-300 air defense system.

He searched for a way to persuade the Russians to take into account Israeli interests. He found no way but to play the card of the Kremlin's desire to restore the ownership of Russian historical religious sites in occupied Jerusalem, a desire that Moscow began to express in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Then, successive Russian governments began demanding the return of property in Palestine, and the recovery of all the Moskobiyeh buildings, considering the orange deal, which lost most of the Russian endowment’s property, as an illegal deal.

Therefore, the Israeli Prime Minister did not hesitate to present Sergei Square as a gift to the Russian government, without paying attention to the Israeli voices that strongly rejected the idea of ​​ceding parts of Jerusalem in favor of another country, given the precedent that this would set for other countries, and even the Arabs and on the They were headed by Palestine and Jordan to demand their historical rights, which opens a door that Israel cannot accept, of course.

Olmert's decision was finally implemented, and the Israelis devoted themselves to renovating the square for six years in an attempt to restore the building to its old form. The large windows, the dining room and the ceilings were restored with murals depicting Jesus and his disciples.

In a ceremony attended by Russian officials, the square opened with its green gardens with a hotel, library and museum showing the history of the Russian complex.

This gave the Russians optimism about the recovery of ecclesiastical endowment properties throughout Palestine, whether in Jerusalem or the 48 lands, and even in the West Bank, but the numerous demands of the Russian government to hand over all Russian properties did not receive an Israeli response until 2020, when the former Israeli Prime Minister promised Benjamin Netanyahu and his Russian counterpart Putin by giving the Russians control over Alexander Square in occupied Jerusalem.

The details of this case go back to 2019, when Russia arrested an Israeli woman named "Nama Issachar", who holds American citizenship, for possessing 10 grams of hashish while traveling from India towards Israel at Moscow airport.

And soon the case aroused widespread anger inside Israel, where the arrest of such a small amount was seen as a political decision and nothing more.

At that time, Moscow offered to release "Nama Issachar" in exchange for the handover of the occupying country, the Russian citizen Alexei Borkov, who was detained by Tel Aviv at the time on suspicion of having links with Russian intelligence and his involvement in cyber attacks against the United States.

However, Israel did not respond to the Russians' request, and handed "Borkov" to Washington in conjunction with offering another alternative that absorbs the Russians' anger, as Netanyahu pledged to "give Moscow control of Alexander Square."

Israel and empty promises..as usual

Alexander Church (Shutterstock)

Since then, Moscow has demanded the transfer of ownership of the church, which it considers the most important Russian site in the "Holy Basin" and a center of attraction for Russian pilgrims, given that it was registered in the name of the "Great Russian Empire" in the documents of the Ottoman rule, then the British, and then the Jordanian, all the way to Israeli control. .

However, Netanyahu left without implementing his decision due to the intransigence of the Israelis, who refused to cede territories to "foreign authorities".

Not only did Israel delay the implementation of what “Netanyahu” pledged to the Russians, but the great disaster for the Russians came when the Jerusalem District Court issued a decision last March that canceled the granting of the Russian government control over the “Alexander Church,” a decision previously issued after a petition submitted by the Palestine Association. Orthodox, which owned the property until last year.

There were no signs of sincerity of Israeli intentions, then, regarding promises of transferring ownership of the church, especially in the midst of the invasion of Ukraine last February, when the Russians viewed with great anger the Israelis' alignment with the US-led Western camp, despite its appearance as a neutral party in many previous positions.

Israel was the first country to set up a field hospital in Ukraine, sent shipments of protective equipment to Ukraine's emergency services, and even went on to vote in favor of a UN resolution suspending Russia from the Commission on Human Rights last April.

Once again, Russia opened the file of "Alexander Square", so Putin sent a letter to former Israeli Prime Minister "Naftali Bennett" asking him to transfer the ownership of church lands to his country, one day after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow criticized the then Foreign Minister (and the current Prime Minister). Yair Lapid accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

Then came the visit of former Russian Prime Minister “Sergei Stepashin” to Tel Aviv, in his capacity as the current head of the Palestinian Orthodox Society, where the man known for his closeness to Putin declared “the fight for the return of Alexander Square,” and launched an attack on Israel for not transferring the Russian compound in Jerusalem to an estate. His country, despite submitting all the historical documents that prove its right to it.

The Vice-President of the Association, Igor Ashurbeyli, spoke

The fate of the Russian "yards" seems to depend more on politics than it does on law and historical rights in light of the hegemony of a settler state that does not care much about historical rights.

(Shutterstock)

Speak "

To Dmitti Diliani, head of the Christian National Assembly in Jerusalem, who said that Russia confirms its possession of all historical documents that prove its right to the Russian compound as being registered in the Ottoman land registry in the name of the “Russian Kingdom.” Diliani explained: “While Netanyahu did not abide by his promise as usual, the occupying power entered electoral rounds that disrupted any decision on the complex’s file, and Bennett had formed a ministerial committee to resolve the issue in the middle of last year, but the committee never met, which confirmed that the occupation government did not intend to abide by Netanyahu’s pledge. Diliani pointed out that with the bias of the occupying power to Ukraine, it became clear that Russia no longer accepts Israeli procrastination, especially since the Israeli Central Court decided at the beginning of this year that the issue of registering the ownership of the complex in the name of the Russian government is in the hands of the government alone. Then he added:The restoration of the ownership of the Al-Maskobiya Square created a precedent for the restoration of all Russian property in Palestine, and I think this is suspicious for the occupying power, which does not want to open the door for others to recover their property.”

In any case, officials in Tel Aviv are surely concerned that the exacerbation of tensions with Moscow over the dispute over the "ownership" of the Church, as well as because of the war on Ukraine, could lead to a real crisis between Israel and Russia, as Israel is still eager to Its relations with the Russians in order to protect its freedom of military action in Syria to strike Iranian targets.

Antoine Shalhat, the principal researcher at the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies "Madar", said in an interview with "

" that Israel will not bear the continuation of tension, and the most important reason remains related to what Israel previously said, and its content is that it considers Russia as a border state due to what It has an influence in Syria, given the formation of coordination relations between Russia and Israel in everything related to the penetration of Iranian influence in Syria.

There is no doubt that Israel is looking forward to putting an end to the tension with Russia as soon as possible, unlike Russia, which does not mind putting pressure on Israel and defaming its relations with the United States for propaganda purposes, especially as its relations with Iran are getting stronger recently against the background of the war.

In the end, the fate of the Russian “yards” seems to depend more on politics than it does on the law and historical rights in light of the domination of a settlement state that does not care much about historical rights, and has always excelled in legal circumvention to deny the rights of others to historical lands and properties and forcibly seize them, and what are the rights of the displaced Palestinians Their homes are decades away.