Israeli Court Blocks Funds for Heritage Center in East Jerusalem

The Jerusalem District Court has overturned the transfer of millions of shekels from the Ministry of Heritage to the right-wing organization Ateret Cohanim, which had been earmarked for establishing a heritage center in Silwan, East Jerusalem. Judge David Zeller accepted the petitioners' argument that there was a conflict of interest between Ateret Cohanim's goal of Judaizing East Jerusalem and the purpose of the endowment and landowner through which it was to operate, which is to aid the needy.

The judge canceled the tender for the project and ordered Ateret Cohanim to pay the petitioners NIS 25,000. The heritage center was intended to be built in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, a focal point for the organization's Judaization efforts, which are based on the presence of a small community of Yemenite Jews there about a century ago. Approximately 25 years ago, Ateret Cohanim gained control of the historical endowment that purchased the land for the community by having its members become trustees of the endowment. Since then, Ateret Cohanim has been working to evict hundreds of Palestinian residents living there.

About a decade ago, the organization succeeded in evicting five Palestinian families from a building that was the sole surviving synagogue of the former Jewish neighborhood. Ateret Cohanim and the government announced plans to establish a heritage center in the synagogue, and the Ministry of Heritage approved an investment of about three million shekels for its renovation.

Ir Amim and neighborhood residents petitioned the court, arguing the budget transfer was illegal. Their petition contended that establishing the heritage center violated the endowment deed, known as the Benvenisti Endowment, signed in 1899, and also raised the conflict of interest claim. In his decision, Zeller wrote that the potential influence of Ateret Cohanim's interests on the endowment's decisions regarding the use and rental of the synagogue building, specifically to Jerusalem Midrasha, an affiliate of Ateret Cohanim, was more than a mere concern.

Ir Amim called the ruling a victory in the struggle against the eviction of Palestinian residents from the neighborhood. The court determined that the connection between the endowment trustees and the settler organization shaped the plan for the visitor center. The ruling halts this plan and clarifies that the endowment's assets cannot be managed according to Ateret Cohanim's interests. This is the second time the heritage center project has been frozen; a previous legal challenge by Ir Amim in 2020 led the Ministry of Justice to rule that the center's establishment contradicted the endowment's goals. In 2022, then-Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar and then-Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze'ev Elkin announced an agreement where a different organization would operate the center, but when it emerged this organization was an Ateret Cohanim affiliate, the new petition was filed.