The official Tel Aviv is ready to admit the wrongness of actions undertaken earlier by the Israeli armed forces on the territory belonging to the Apostolic Church. The representatives of the Israeli government already confess that the attempts to lay the wall through those territories were wrong and were not expressing the intention of the authorities to make annexation of lands belonging to the Armenian Church. “The government just needed temporarily to use the part of those territories to prevent the dissemination of terrorism in the country”. This is how the Israeli diplomats comment on the actions of the Israeli army. While it is evident that if the reaction of the world community was not so harsh, Tel Aviv would never apologize. We shall remind that immediately after the occupation the commanders of the Israeli army announced that the occupied territories were not a subject to return.
It is worth noting that the American Jews who have friendly relations with the Armenians living in the USA were the first to express their support to the violated rights of the Armenian Church. The Jewish Committee voiced its concern with the events taking place. It urged the Defense Ministry of Israel to respect the rights of the Armenian Church.
The Leader of the Catholic Church John Paul II also voiced his concern. In the message addressed to the All Armenian Catholicos Garegin II the Holy Pontiff expressed his support to the Armenian Church. Representatives of other religious confessions also spoke against the actions undertaken by the Israeli army.
The United Nations Organization was also disappointed with the events taking place. Special rapporteur of the UN on religious issues, A. Amor sent an official Note to the Israeli authorities demanding “to follow the international norms”. The world press also noted that violation of the international norms was taking place in Israel.
The Armenian lobbyists of the USA also carried out a large amount of work. The Armenian Assembly of America sent letters to the US President J. Bush, Secretary of State Collin Powell and Adviser on National Security Condolesa Rice. The Ambassador of Israel to Washington Daniel Ayalon was obliged to make a report on the plans of his government. “The Israeli authorities do not dispute the rights of the Armenian patriarchate of Jerusalem on the lands situated on the suburbs of Bethlehem,” he said. This was the first public statement showing that Tel Aviv was ready to give in.
The decision of the Israeli authorities to stop the attempts of occupying the lands of the Armenian patriarchate can be considered the success of the Armenian diplomacy. First of all, the Israeli party will compensate the material damages caused to the church. The order of the access of the troops on the territory of the Armenian patriarchate must be agreed. According to one of the points of the draft agreement, the representatives of the army will have the right to enter the territory of the patriarchate only in case if the Archbishop agrees and after making appropriate payment. The height and the length of the dividing wall will also be discussed in the agreement.
However, the main problem remains unsolved. It is not clear, if the integrity of the Christian part of Jerusalem will be maintained. The wall to be constructed is aimed at strengthening of the sovereignty of Israel on the Armenian sector of Jerusalem, while the Jews are ready to give to Palestine the Orthodox-Catholic sectors. The leaders of all the tree confessions consider this inadmissible. Vatican, Constantinople and Echmiadzin agree the Christian Jerusalem must be within a single state. There are no bases to hope on the easy solution of this problem. It means that the fate of the Armenian part of Jerusalem is undecided up to now.
