Clash Over Armenian Quarter Land Lease Deal Turns Physical

The showdown over the land lease for the Cows’ Garden parking lot area moved from the courts into the lot itself on November 5, 2023.

Around 3:00 p.m., developer and majority shareholder Danny Rothman of Xana Capital Ltd. arrived at the site with about 15 armed settlers and two large leashed attack dogs, pepper spray, a bulldozer, and his business partner and Israeli citizen George Warwar (also known as George Haddad).

They set to work tearing up the parking lot pavement into large chunks.

The armed Xana men ominously formed a line to block community members from accessing the work site and were also filming them as they began protesting.

According to a press release issued by the local organization Save the ArQ, Warwar demanded the Armenians leave what he called their land. “Warwar threatened the community, claiming he’ll ‘get them one by one.’” The settlers were also active, announcing that the Armenians are all “‘Goys (non Jews) and we will kill you when the Messiah comes.’”1

A number of the settlers were dressed in civilian clothes and armed with assault rifles and stated that they were part of the Kitat Konenut First Response Team. This is the force that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been building up lately—handing out assault rifles to hundreds of ragtag Jewish volunteers. When questioned by a reporter why this team needed to carry assault rifles into a peaceful situation, a police officer at the site answered on the live feed, “Half the country is armed.”2

One bystander with a gun was asked by journalist Nicole Schiavi Jansezian, a local journalist reporting live from the scene on Facebook,3 why he had it. “We just came to help out,” he said. “In my opinion when someone responds with a gun, it keeps everyone polite.” Moreover, he added, “The police told me I should not come into the Old City without a gun.”4

The community did not disperse; instead, the group summoned more neighbors and lawyers to stand down the threat. About 200 Armenians remained on-site into the night, after erecting a protest tent, large Armenian flags, and a flag of Artsakh, and singing the Armenian national anthem at the scene.

The Armenian Patriarch, His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, also joined the protestors and sat in the protest tent along with other bishops.

Less than a week ago, Manougian released a letter stating his intention to cancel the ill-fated and despised land lease deal and filed a legal suit in Israeli courts to accomplish this, setting off a process that should proceed in the courts, not on the ground.

Apparently, this did not sit well with Rothman and his team. Two hours later, however, they departed—outnumbered for the moment.

“Right here what you see is a land war that goes on. It’s the kind of thing that goes on even when there are not rockets flying, there is always a battle for land here,” commented Jansezian.5