JERUSALEM - The Armenian Patriarchate will appeal to Israel's High Court to protest plans to build a security fence through its property on the outskirts of Bethlehem, a patriarchate official said Sunday.
Father Pakrad Bourjekian said the army had seized property belonging to the patriarchate, bulldozed olive trees and destroyed tombs to clear a road that will run along the planned fence line, which will divide the property.
Israel recently began constructing a fence around parts of Jerusalem in an attempt to stop Palestinian suicide bombers from entering the city from the West Bank.
Bourjekian said members of the patriarchate had met with Defense Ministry officials and requested the fence be constructed along the border of the property, known as Baron Der, but that they refused. On June 23, a military order seizing part of the land was delivered to the patriarchate, he said.
The army has also taken control of a monastery on the property, abandoned because of violence in the area, Bourjekian said.
The Defense Ministry did not immediately comment.
Baron Der is situated in an area between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and is near Rachel's Tomb, the place where Jews believe the biblical matriarch, wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph, is buried. Since violence erupted in September 2000, sporadic gunfights have broken out in the area between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers.
Bourjekian said an appeal had been lodged in a Tel Aviv court regarding part of the property that is located on the outskirts of east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Mideast War. An appeal would be lodged soon with Israel's High Court for the remainder of the property, he said.