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8 Land in the Shadow of the Cross: German Lutheran, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox Property in Israel “Enemy Property” In Israel’s efforts to ensure control of all the land within its borders, one of its main targets was“enemy property.”The property of the Lutheran Church was included in this category. The Israeli apparatus dealing with this subject was based, both legally and administratively, on British experience in Mandatory Palestine from November 1939 onward.At the time an ordinance was enacted, empowering the high commissioner to transfer the assets of nationals of countries at war with Great Britain into the custody of the custodian of enemy property , until the signing of a peace treaty. This category naturally included the property of German nationals. The assets of Christian organizations, on the other hand, were earmarked for immediate release.1 In late 1947, when the establishment of a Jewish state appeared imminent,and in light of Zionist efforts to purchase some of this property,2 pressure was brought to bear on the British to release German assets, which included 46,000 dunams (1 dunam is a quarter of an acre) of land then held by the custodian. The British government took steps to release this property so as to forestall its appropriation by the future state and so that Germans still residing in Palestine, and in particular the Templars, would not be exposed (as the high commissioner phrased it) “to the mercies of the future Israeli government,whose attitude towards all Germans— including families who have lived peacefully in Palestine for close to a century— [is dictated] more by emotion than by logic.”3 One of the British measures entailed cancellation of all the transfer directives, but the counterdirective was never published in the Official Gazette, so the Israeli government was later able to claim that it was not obliged to recognize it. After the state was established, Israel took several steps aimed at de facto and legal requisition of most of the German land.These included transferring it to the Israeli custodian of enemy property, obtaining special transfer orders from the courts, invalidating old powers of attorney submitted by German lawyers, confiscating assets without paying the maximum compensation stipBialer , Cross on the Star 6/9/05 8:43 AM Page 166 ulated by Israeli law, and—having no choice in the matter as will be shown below—conducting negotiations with property owners with an eye to purchase. The overall objective was to obtain control of tens of thousands of dunams of land by, among other means, temporary custody of the assets as a surety for future Israeli claims against Germany and German nationals. A law enacted by the Knesset in early 1950 prohibited the release of German property and its restoration to its owners. Israel’s approach was undoubtedly influenced by the unmistakably pro-German sentiments displayed by the majority of the German Protestant community in Palestine during World War II (of which the British too had been mindful).4 Another significant factor was the wide-scale exodus of Germans that began in the 1930s,considerably reducing the demand for the services of the Lutheran Church.5 For obvious political reasons, however ,Israel adopted Mandatory legal procedures and excluded ecclesiastical assets from the law. In these circumstances, it negotiated for more than two years with the German Lutheran Church regarding Lutheran property. These negotiations were launched on the initiative of the Lutheran World Federation,operating from Geneva.The German Lutheran Church asked this body to take action to prevent “this property from falling into alien hands,” and in August 1949 the Federation submitted an official request for the release of more than 8,000 dunams of church-owned property.6 The Israeli land administrators naturally viewed this initiative,whose precise aims and tactics were ascertained by Israeli intelligence, as a threat. What was of particular concern to Israeli officials was the Federation’s stand on the strategically placed Syrian Orphanage in Jerusalem, known as the Schneller compound.This 335–dunam area had been classified in the Mandate period as “enemy property” and was seized by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 war. In internal discussions by Foreign Ministry’s officials in late 1949, the blatant anti-Semitism of the director of the orphanage was noted, which had led him in 1938 to decide to sell the property to prevent it from falling into the hands of “stinking Eastern European Jews with low moral standards,”7 and move his center...

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