Horse trading: Israel and the greek orthodox ecclesiastical property, 1948–1952

The new State of Israel's desire to assert control over the bulk of the territory within its borders conflicted with the claims of the various church organizations to legal and historic rights over property in the state. The ideal solution, as far as Jerusalem was concerned, was to engineer a settlement with church organizations which, on the one hand, would minimize political damage and, on the other—and this was far more important—would imply de jure recognition by the Christian world of the new situation in Palestine after the 1948 war. This envisaged solution was totally at odds with the manifest interest of the Christian world in protecting its rights and assets in the Holy Land. Consequently, Israel's path to achieving its objectives was by no means smooth, as the article demonstrates by its analysis of the negotiations with the Greek Orthodox Church.