Reply #24: No, it wasn't.

[Englander]

That was the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, he didn't just "sell land to Jews";

'Orthodox shun Patriarch Irineos
Tuesday, 24 May, 2005

>snip

Patriarch Irineos stands accused of authorising the sale of some of the most sensitive property in Jerusalem - three buildings in the main square near the Jaffa Gate, that have for generations been lived in by Palestinians.

Their leases have been bought by anonymous Jewish investors.

Palestinians have always thought that in any settlement involving the division of Jerusalem, this land would be theirs.

The sale of some land to Jewish investors in the past has been followed by settlement activity aimed, some believe, at disrupting the transfer of land to Palestinians in any final settlement.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in 1981, but its claim to the area is not recognised internationally.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4574759.stm