JERUSALEM, March 19: The Greek Orthodox Church moved to calm Palestinian jitters over Jerusalem’s future on Saturday after an Israeli newspaper said a top church official had secretly sold key property in the holy city to Jews. The church stopped short of confirming the report in Maariv daily that a former aide to Jerusalem Patriarch Irineos had sold Old City land to two groups of unnamed foreign Jewish investors, but said such a deal would have been unauthorized and thus void. “The (aide’s) power of attorney discussed (in Maariv) is null and void because it was not issued by the patriarch with the consensus of the Holy Synod,” a Greek Orthodox Church spokesman said on Saturday.

The major land holdings of the Holy Land’s oldest church have entangled it in the Middle East conflict.

The Maariv report stirred dismay among the Greek Orthodox Church’s 100,000 mainly Arab followers, and prompted the Palestinian Authority (PA) to order an official investigation.

“These lands are Palestinian lands, not lands from Crete or Greece,” Marwan Toubasi of the Greek Orthodox Central Council told reporters. “We call on the Greek government to intervene and facilitate the inquiry.”

Maariv said the Irineos aide alleged to have brokered the multimillion-dollar deal had left the country. According to the church spokesman, an arrest warrant had been issued for a former employee of the partriarchate “for felony-level crimes”.

The Greek Orthodox Church owns or leases big areas in Jerusalem, including affluent parts of the Jewish west and the land on which Israel’s president and prime minister reside.

In recent years, pro-Zionist magnates like Irving Moscowitz of the United States have paid top prices for homes in East Jerusalem, including the Old City, so Israelis could move in.

“This matter clearly reveals Israel’s plan to judaise Jerusalem,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei in response to the Maariv report. Israeli officials said there was no evidence of government involvement.—Reuters