On October 15, 2023, lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili published a post on Facebook, claiming that a law has been passed in Israel, according to which the government has the right to seize the lands of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and Christian communities and impose taxes. According to the post, for the first time in 100 years, Christians closed the door of the throne at Christ’s tomb in protest. The post is accompanied by the 2018 story of the Belarusian broadcaster Belarus 1, where the anchor tells the listeners similar information.
The claim that according to Israeli law, the government has the right to confiscate lands and impose taxes on Christian communities, and the patriarchate is manipulative. The law about payment of taxes was actually introduced in 2018, and the land confiscation bill was also considered during the same period; however, as a result of the Prime Minister’s decision, the taxes were abolished, and the consideration of the second law was stopped.
The post by Irakli Zakareishvili uses an old story of the Belarusian First Channel. On February 23, 2018, Orthodox, Armenian, and Catholic clerics in Jerusalem closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in response to a decision by the Jerusalem Municipality to hold the church liable for tax payments. At the same time, the legislative body of the country was discussing a bill that would allow the state to confiscate church property. More specifically, the government would have the right to seize property that the church was selling/renting for commercial purposes. It should be noted that the draft law, called the “Tenants’ Bill of Rights,” did not directly mention the confiscation of church property, although it aimed to protect the rights of individuals/legal entities who live on land leased for 99 years to various bodies in the 1950s. Churches in Jerusalem have taken a large part of the territories from the state on multi-year leases, and some territories are rented out on commercial markets.
As a result of the protests of the clergy and a large part of the population, in a few days the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, got involved in the proceedings and by his decision, the collection of taxes from the church was stopped, and the consideration of the land confiscation bill was stopped, which resulted in the cessation of protests and the opening of the church doors. Although the same draft law came up again in October and was going to be discussed in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), the approval of the draft law did not happen due to Netanyahu’s intervention. In addition to the leaders of the Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches, the Prime Minister’s decision, according to the Times of Israel, was influenced by the Greek-Israeli alliance, which is focused on strengthening relations between Greece, Cyprus and Israel and is supported by the US Congress.
After the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a number of false claims, as well as photo and video manipulations, were disseminated on social media. For more information, see the “Myth Detector” articles:
- Can Russian be Heard in the Video of the Hamas Attack that Was Disseminated on Facebook?
- The Video Attributed to the Israel-Hamas War Actually Depicts a Child Surviving an Earthquake in Syria
- The Viral Video Showing Children in a Cage is NOT RELATED to the Israel-Hamas War
- Videofabrication as if the CNN Camera Crew Staged Bombing
- Ukraine’s Alleged Sale of Weapons to Hamas is Without Evidence – Russian Propaganda about the Black Market for Weapons
- What Does the Video of the Attack on the Woman with a Hijab Actually Depict?
- A Fabricated Quote Under the Name of the Israeli Defense Minister Circulating in Kremlin Media and Social Networks
- Disinformation as if Hamas Warned Israeli Festival Attendees Before the Attack
About the Source
Lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili often publishes posts with anti-Western, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-opposition content. Since the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023, he has regularly posted anti-Semitic posts. False information spread by Zakareishvili has been debunked by “Myth Detector” many times in the past.
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