JERUSALEM: Leaders of major churches have accused Israeli authorities of launching a “coordinated attack” on the Christian presence in the Holy Land by initiating tax proceedings against them.
While Israeli officials have tried to dismiss the disagreement as a routine financial matter, the churches say the move upsets a centuries-old status quo and reflects mounting intolerance for the tiny Christian presence in the Holy Land.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the heads of the major Christian denominations alleged that four municipalities across Israel had recently submitted warning letters to church officials cautioning them of legal action if they did not pay taxes.
“We believe these efforts represent a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land,” wrote the heads of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox churches. “In this time, when the whole world, and the Christian world in particular, are constantly following the events in Israel, we find ourselves, once again, dealing with an attempt by authorities to drive the Christian presence out of the Holy Land.”
Christians are a tiny minority, making up less than 2 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories. There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the US State Department. The vast majority are Palestinians.
The churches, who are major landowners in the Holy Land, say they do not pay property taxes under longstanding tradition. They say their funds go to services that benefit the state, like schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly.
The letter said the municipalities of Tel Aviv, Ramla, Nazareth and Jerusalem in recent months have all either issued warning letters or commenced legal action for alleged tax debts.
The Jerusalem municipality told The Associated Press that the church had not submitted the necessary requests for tax exemptions over the last few years. It said that “a dialogue is taking place with the churches to collect debts for the commercial properties they own.”
The other municipalities did not immediately comment. It was unclear if the municipalities acted in a coordinated effort or whether the tax moves are coincidental.
In 2018, Christians closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — revered by Christians as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — to protest a move by Israeli officials to impose taxes on commercial properties in the holy city.
The Christian leaders argued that the sites — like pilgrim hostels and information centers — served important religious and cultural purposes, and that taxing them would infringe on Christian religious observance in the Holy Land. After the public backlash, Netanyahu quickly suspended the plan.
Heads of churches say Israeli government is demanding they pay property tax, upsetting status quo
https://arab.news/2yk79
Heads of churches say Israeli government is demanding they pay property tax, upsetting status quo
Turkiye detained hundreds after anti-Syrian riots: minister
- A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire
“474 people were detained after the provocative actions” carried out against Syrians in Turkiye, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Tensions escalated from Sunday following violence in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire.
In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians! We don’t want any more foreigners.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused the opposition of stoking tensions while condemning the latest bout of violence against the Syrians as “unacceptable.”
But the violence spread to several other cities late on Monday including Istanbul and authorities have often called for calm.
Turkish police boosted security around the Syrian consulate in Istanbul, deploying an armored truck and patrolling the vicinity, according to an AFP journalist.
250,000 in southern Gaza hit by Israel’s new evacuation order: UN
- Israeli army Monday issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza
- The fighting since then has again uprooted many Palestinians and led to the closure of a key aid crossing
Geneva: The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees estimated Tuesday that a quarter of a million people had been impacted since Israel’s army issued a new evacuation order for parts of southern Gaza a day earlier.
“We’ve seen people moving, families moving, people starting to pack up their belongings and try to leave this area,” UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza.
The agency “estimates that around 250,000 people have been impacted by these orders,” she said, adding: “We expect these numbers to grow.”
Her comments came after the Israeli army Monday issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza.
The 250,000 number was UNRWA’s estimate for the people in the area of new evacuation orders in eastern Khan Yunis, Wateridge told AFP.
“We expect that almost all of these people will move from this area,” she said, adding that the agency hoped to get a better idea later Tuesday of the numbers who have physically left.
Monday’s evacuation order followed mass displacement from large parts of Rafah that began with a similar order nearly two months ago, which signalled the start of a long-feared Israeli ground offensive.
The fighting since then has again uprooted many Palestinians and led to the closure of a key aid crossing.
“This is another devastating blow to the humanitarian response here,” Wateridge said.
“It’s another devastating blow for the people and the families on the ground. It seems that they are forcibly being displaced again, and again.”
She pointed out that following the start of the Rafah incursion in May, people had flooded back into the largely destroyed Khan Yunis area.
“And now already, because of the orders last night, the same families are having to move again,” she said.
“There is absolutely no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”
Gaza’s deadliest war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
UN seeks help for tens of thousands of Sudan refugees fleeing to Libya, Uganda
- At least 20,000 Sudanese refugees had arrived in Libya since last year, with arrivals accelerating in recent months
GENEVA: The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday it is expanding its Sudan aid plan to two new countries, Libya and Uganda, as arrivals surge.
Sudan is already the world’s worst displacement crisis with some 12 million forced to flee by the civil war and over 2 million being displaced across borders. The latest expansion of the UN response plan brings to seven the total number of African countries taking in large numbers of Sudanese refugees.
The Libya arrivals raise the prospect that the refugees may continue their journey to Europe — a scenario which UNHCR’s chief has already warned about if aid is not provided.
A UNHCR planning document published on Tuesday showed that the agency expects to receive 149,000 in Libya before year-end. It projects 55,000 for Uganda which does not share a direct border with Sudan. “It just speaks to the desperate situation and desperate decisions that people are making, that they end up in a place like Libya which is of course extremely, extremely difficult for refugees right now,” the UNHCR’s Ewan Watson told reporters in Geneva.
Already at least 20,000 refugees had arrived in Libya since last year, with arrivals accelerating in recent months and many thousands more unregistered, Watson added. At least 39,000 Sudanese refugees had arrived in Uganda since the war began, he said.
Lebanon says Israeli GPS jamming confounding ground, air traffic
- For months, whacky location data on apps have caused confusion in Lebanon
- Israel has taken measures to disrupt Global Positioning System functionality for Hamas and other opponents
BEIRUT: Uber driver Hussein Khalil was battling traffic in Beirut when he found himself in the Gaza Strip — according to his online map, anyway — as location jamming blamed on Israel disrupts life in Lebanon.
“We’ve been dealing with this problem a lot for around five months,” said Khalil, 36.
“Sometimes we can’t work at all,” the disgruntled driver said on Beirut’s chaotic, car-choked streets.
“Of course, we are losing money.”
For months, whacky location data on apps have caused confusion in Lebanon, where the Hezbollah militant group has been engaged in cross-border clashes with Israel.
The near-daily exchanges started after Hamas, Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza.
In March, Beirut lodged a complaint with the United Nations about “attacks by Israel on Lebanese sovereignty in the form of jamming the airspace around” the Beirut airport.
Khalil showed screenshots of apps displaying his locations not only in the Gazan city of Rafah — around 300 kilometers away — but also in east Lebanon near the Syrian border, when he was actually in Beirut.
With online maps loopy, Khalil said “one passenger phoned me and asked, ‘Are you in Baalbek?’” referring to a city in east Lebanon.
“I told her: ‘No, I’ll be at your location (in Beirut) in two minutes’.”
Numerous residents have reported their online map location as appearing at Beirut airport while they were actually elsewhere in the capital.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israel has taken measures to disrupt Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality for the group and other opponents.
The Israeli army said in October that it disrupted GPS “in a proactive manner for various operational needs.”
It warned of “various and temporary effects on location-based applications.”
Specialist site gpsjam.org, which compiles geolocation signal disruption data based on aircraft data reports, reported a low level of disruption around Gaza on October 7.
But the next day, disturbances increased around the Palestinian territory and also along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
On June 28, the level of interference showing on the site was high above Lebanon and parts of Syria, Jordan and Israel.
An AFP journalist in Jerusalem said her location appeared as if she was in Cairo, Egypt’s capital about 400 kilometers away.
The interference has at times extended to European Union member Cyprus, some 200 kilometers from Lebanon, where AFP journalists have reported their GPS location appearing at Beirut airport instead of on the island.
“Israel is using GPS jamming to disrupt or interfere with Hezbollah’s communications,” said Freddy Khoueiry, global security analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at risk intelligence company RANE.
It is “also using GPS spoofing... to send false GPS signals, aimed at disrupting and hindering drones’ and precision-guided missiles’ abilities to function or hit their targets,” he added.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has “a large arsenal” of such GPS-assisted weapons, he noted.
The cross-border exchanges have killed more than 490 people in Lebanon — mostly fighters — according to an AFP tally, with 26 people killed in northern Israel, according to authorities there.
Fears have grown of all-out conflict between the foes that last went to war in 2006.
Asked about GPS jamming in northern Israel, where Hezbollah has concentrated its attacks, a spokesperson for Israel’s defense ministry said’s Jerusalem office that “currently, we are unable to discuss operational matters.”
Lebanon’s civil aviation chief Fadi El-Hassan said that since March, the body has asked pilots flying in or out of Beirut to “rely on ground navigation equipment and not on GPS signals due to the ongoing interference in the region.”
Ground navigation equipment is typically used as a back-up system.
Hassan expressed frustration that “in this technological age, a pilot who wants to land at our airport cannot use GPS due to Israeli enemy interference.”
Lebanon is ensuring “the maintenance of ground navigation equipment at all times in order to provide the necessary signals for pilots to land safely,” he said.
Avedis Seropian, a licensed pilot, said he had stopped using GPS in recent months.
“We got used to the situation. I don’t rely on (GPS) at all... I fly relying on a compass and paper map,” he said.
But he said not having GPS, even as a fallback, was disconcerting.
When geolocation data is wrong and visibility is poor, “you can suddenly find yourself in a state of panic,” he said.
“That could lead to an accident or a disaster.”
Slow art: the master illuminator of Tehran
- Aghamiri, 51, is one of Iran’s dozen or so remaining masters of the ancient illumination art of Tazhib
- Tazhib, which traditionally adorns holy books and epic poems, inscribed on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage
Tehran: Iranian artist Mohammad Hossein Aghamiri sometimes labors for six months on a single design, very carefully — he knows a single crooked line could ruin his entire artwork.
In the age of AI-assisted graphic design on computer screens, the centuries-old tradition of Persian illumination offers an antidote to rushing the creative process.
Aghamiri’s fine brush moves natural pigments onto the paper with deliberate precision as he creates intricate floral patterns, religious motifs and elegantly flowing calligraphy.
The exquisite artwork has for centuries embellished literary manuscripts, religious texts and royal edicts as well as many business contracts and marriage certificates.
Aghamiri, 51, is one of Iran’s dozen or so remaining masters of the ancient illumination art of Tazhib, which was inscribed last year on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage.
“It is a very unique job that requires a lot of patience and precision,” Aghamiri, a veteran of the craft with over 30 years’ experience, told AFP in his downtown Tehran studio.
“It’s not accessible to everyone.”
Tazhib’s non-figurative and geometric flourishes have traditionally adorned the margins of holy books and epic poems.
The artform dates back to the Sassanid era in pre-Islamic Iran but flourished after the seventh century advent of Islam, which banned human depictions.
Aghamiri says it often takes him months to finish one design and that a single misplaced stroke that disrupts its symmetrical harmony can force him to start over.
When AFP visited, he was working on a so-called shamsa design, a symbolic representation of the sun, about 50 centimeters across with intertwined abstract, geometric and floral patterns.
He said he started the piece over four months ago and aimed to finish it within six weeks, using natural pigments such as lapis lazuli, saffron, gouache and pure gold, from China.
“Gold has a very strong visual appeal,” said Aghamiri. “It’s expensive and it enhances the perceived value of the work.”
Aghamiri hails from a family of artists and artisans with a rich history in Iranian craft traditions including calligraphy, miniature painting and carpet design.
His work has been showcased in museums in Iran and in nearby Arab countries of the Gulf region where interest in Oriental and Islamic art continues to grow.
“Eighty percent of my works are sold in the region, especially in the Emirates and Qatar” as well as in Turkiye, he said.
In recent years, Aghamiri garnered interest abroad and even began teaching the ancient art online to students from across the world, notably the United States.
Soon, he also hopes to hold workshops in Britain for his craft, which he says is fundamentally different from European illumination art, which flourished in the Middle Ages.
European designs, he said, are more figurative and can depict human faces, animals and landscapes, and often illustrate biblical scenes.
UNESCO labelled the Persian art of illumination as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2023, at the request of Iran as well as Turkiye, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
“Twenty years ago, I didn’t have much hope” for the future of Persian illumination, said Aghamiri. “But things have changed, and I see that this art is becoming more and more popular.”
