In another city, the fight over the hilltop property plot might be an unremarkable planning battle, pitting profit-driven developers against unhappy local residents. But Jerusalem is no ordinary city and the Hill of Evil Counsel is no ordinary hill. The hilltop is so called because it is the spot where Caiphas, the Jewish high priest, decided to betray Jesus and hand him over to the Romans for crucifixion. It is a key site in the New Testament and the birthplace of the centuries-old anti-Semitic trope of Jews as “Christ killers”. Now, Jews, Muslims and Christians are fighting to keep the area from being turned into luxury flats. The Hill of Evil Counsel, which has sweeping views of Jerusalem’s Old City, had been administered for hundreds of years by the Greek Orthodox church, which owns huge swathes of property in the city, including the land on which Israel’s parliament is built upon. In recent years the church has gone on a controversial land-selling spree, taking in millions of dollars from property deals. In one of the deals, it agreed to sell a 110-year lease for the hilltop to Michael Steinhardt, an American financier and David Sofer, a London-based Israeli businessman. Theodore Friedgut, a retired Canadian-Israeli professor, has lived on the site for more than 50 years and will lose his home if development goes ahead Credit: Quique Kierszenbaum The developers plan to cement over the open space - once used by British military bands for practices - and build apartment buildings, where the flats and their epic views will likely end up in the hands of wealthy foreigners who visit Jerusalem a few times a year. The developers’ project, and the church’s decision to sell them the lease, have infuriated local residents. “The Greek church have no right to lease it and to destroy it. They are supposed to protect it, not sell it off the highest bidder,” said Sarah Sallon, a British-Israeli doctor who has lived in Jerusalem for 30 years. “‘This magnificent view is all of our heritage and we fight for it as a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.” Sarah Sallon has been involved in trying to stop the development going ahead Credit: Quique Kierszenbaum / Telegraph A church official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the current Greek patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos, had inherited a mountain of debt from his predecessor, who was forced from power in 2005 and exiled to a small room in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre compound. “We did not wake up one morning and say: Hill of Evil Counsel, lets develop that area. We came into power with a big problem and with 40 million shekels (£8.7 million) in debt connected with the area and we had no choice. We had to deal with it,” he said. The church relies on income from its property portfolio to survive, the official added. The Abu Tor neighbourhood where the hill is located is divided between Israeli and Palestinian residents and was a frontline during the 1967 war. Israeli troops once used the second floor of a hilltop monastery to look down on Jordanian forces below. Abu Tor literally means “father of the bull”, after one of Salahedin’s generals who according to legend rode a white bull into battle against the Crusaders. The Greek Orthodox church has administered the site for hundreds of years Credit: Quique Kierszenbaum / Telegraph Palestinian families from the eastern part of Abu Tor said they joined with their Jewish neighbours in opposing the plans, and were worried an entrance road planned for the development might force some of them out of their homes. “We will join any demonstrations against this,” said Nawal Zakaria Bazalamit, the 74-year-old matriarch of her family. A law firm representing the developers did not respond to a request for comment. Opponents of the plans don’t know if they will prevail against the well-heeled developers. Theodore Friedgut, a retired Canadian-Israeli professor of Russian history, has lived on the hill for more than 50 years and remembers surveyors coming immediately after the 1967 war, looking for potential opportunities. “We saw there was interest in develop all the way back then,” he said. But Mr Friedgut points out that misfortunes have befallen those who have previously tried to commercialise the site. In the 1980s a consortium tried to take over the Hill of Evil Counsel in partnership with the church, but the project collapsed and the two sides fought a bitter legal battle. Another time, a Greek priest allegedly began to put pressure on the few families who lived in rent-controlled houses on the hill, demanding they pay more. According to locals’ stories, he drowned in the River Jordan soon after, not far from the spot where Jesus is said to have been baptised.
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