The measure, imposed on August 6, prevents the Patriarchate from paying clergy, teachers, and employees across its schools, monasteries, and charitable institutions.
It also aggravates the decades-long struggle over land ownership, taxation, and the political weight carried by churches whose roots predate the modern State of Israel by centuries.
At the heart of the confrontation lies “Arnona,” Jerusalem’s property tax.
For generations, churches had been shielded from such levies, a status quo respected by Ottoman, British, Jordanian, and Israeli authorities. That understanding began to fracture in 2018, when city officials sought millions of shekels in back taxes for properties not used strictly for worship or religious instruction.
Guesthouses, cafeterias, and service facilities for pilgrims were suddenly treated as taxable assets. The resulting standoff grew so severe that the custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed its doors in protest, a dramatic gesture that forced then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene.
This time, however, the Patriarchate has received no such reprieve.
City hall argues that patience has run out: years of notices were ignored, and the church failed to meet its obligations.
“Administrative enforcement procedures were initiated,” municipal officials said, describing the step as unavoidable.
The Patriarchate, led by Patriarch Theophilos III, denounces the freeze as an assault on religious institutions that sustain not only Christian life but also broader social needs. Through its schools, clinics, and welfare programs, the church often fills gaps left by the state, it argues.
Theophilos, together with Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, co-leads the advocacy group Protecting Holy Land Christians, which insists that the imposition of municipal taxes undermines centuries of precedent and weakens the Christian presence in Jerusalem.
The dispute unfolds against a backdrop of rising hostility.
The Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, a Jerusalem-based interfaith institute, documented 111 attacks on Christians in Israel in 2024, up from 89 the previous year.
Clergy in religious dress were particular targets, suffering assaults ranging from spitting and pepper spray to outright beatings.
The majority of incidents were attributed to members of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious Jewish movements.