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Russia seeks to
restore its prestige in the Holy Land
Eager to revive its prestige in the Holy Land, Russia is
pressing a claim to ownership of an historic Jerusalem building formerly owned
by a tsarist prince and which once housed aristocratic pilgrims.
The 19th century Sergei Building is in the centre of
Jerusalem and at the heart of complex negotiations in which even British royal
consort Prince Philip has been mentioned as a potential, though unlikely, heir.
The Russian state had initially hoped to take possession in
June of the impressive property that once belonged to Prince Sergei, a brother
of Tsar Alexander III.
Since 1948, the building, topped by a crenellated tower, has
housed the Israeli agriculture ministry and other agencies and been administered
by the government's custodian general, responsible for property listed as
abandoned.
A tangle of legal issues has held up the transfer, but
Moscow remains determined to push the deal through and revive the building's
past.
"We want to restore our historic heritage in the Holy
land," says Russia's charge d'affaires in Israel, Anatoli Yurkov, who
believes the deal could be completed as early as next month.
Imperial Russia was, in the 19th century, the first European
power to organise mass pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Sergei Building, then
known as the Sergei Imperial Hospice, was a kind of five-star hotel for
pilgrims, housing only aristocrats and other well-heeled Russians.
It is now one of several historic buildings in the Russian
Compound, which also includes the 19th century Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity
Cathedral.
Some of the land in the Russian Compound was sold to Israel
by the Soviet Union in the 1960s in what became known as the "oranges
deal" because the young and cash-strapped Jewish state made part of the
payment in citrus fruits.
Officially atheist during the decades of communist rule,
Russia's political establishment is now "responding in part to the Russian
Church's desire to return to the Holy Land," says Alexandre Zanemonets,
who teaches Byzantine history at Haifa University.
The desire to reclaim ownership of the historic buildings
also "reflects the Russian people's interest in their Christian
roots," he says.
Negotiations over the Sergei Building have been complicated
by the fact the building was the private property of Prince Sergei. "That
means the Russian state was not automatically entitled to this property,"
says Zanemonets.
Prince Sergei, who died in 1905, had no children.
But because of the British royal family has distant ties to
the Romanovs, Prince Philip is a potential heir. "This may be the case,
but it's an indirect right, and as far as I know he is not claiming the
property," says Yurkov.
The diplomat says a deal was reached in January but that
"problems on the Israeli side have caused delays."
Israeli officials say once the ownership hurdle is cleared,
further negotiations will be needed to end the lease of the current tenants,
the agriculture ministry and the society for the protection of nature.
Once the tenants have left, Russia wants to turn the
building back to its original use, to house pilgrims.
In the Soviet era, barely 1,000 Russian pilgrims a year
visited the Holy Land, but since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union the
number of Russians retracing the steps of Jesus Christ has grown steadily,
reaching 200,000 in 2007, a 163 percent increase over the previous year.
A further increase is expected now that Israel and Russia
have reached a bilateral agreement to do away with visa requirements as of
October.
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