Christian leaders in Jerusalem are warning their charitable work could be at risk after a fresh dispute over taxes between churches and city authorities.
The controversy, which centres on Israel’s property tax has prompted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to appeal to Pope Leo and other international leaders over fears centuries-old exemptions could be at risk.
The Palestinian Authority regards East Jerusalem as occupied territory and disputes Israel’s right to levy taxes on church properties in the Holy Land. It also wants to protect historic privileges granted to Christian institutions under agreements dating back to the Ottoman era.
Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said the Mytilene Agreements of 1901 had helped establish certain tax exemptions, adding “They were respected under the British Mandate and even by Israel in the years following independence, in 1948, and have never been officially repealed.”
Bishop Shomali stressed the difference between the church’s commercial activities and its religious, educational and charitable work.
Christian leaders fear worship and outreach to vulnerable members of society could be impacted by the dispute.
The bishop said it was vital to define precisely what constitutes a commercial activity and what belongs to the pastoral, social or religious mission of the churches.
He suggested a negotiated agreement could avoid retrospective claims against commercial activities, limiting future tax liability and that “a compromise remains possible. This could consist of having clearly for-profit activities contribute to the municipal charges from which they benefit, while preserving the exemptions granted to places of worship, parish halls, cemeteries, and religious, educational and charitable institutions.”
The bishop welcomed President Abbas’s intervention as an important reminder of the church’s historic rights because “it helps to bring the subject back to the forefront of international attention, even if it does not, on its own, possess the necessary force to impose an immediate solution.”
The dispute comes at a difficult time for Christian communities in the Holy Land, who are grappling with the consequences of regional conflict, economic hardship and declining employment opportunities.