Arab Orthodox Movement

Arab Orthodox Movement

The Second Arab Orthodox Conference held in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine on 28 October 1931, with delegates from various Palestinian and Transjordanian cities.
Native name	الحركة العربية الأرثوذكسية
Date	1860–present
Location	Palestine, Jordan, Israel
Also known as	Orthodox Cause القضية الأرثوذكسية
Cause	Ending the Greek domination of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Motive	Arab nationalism
Outcome	Establishment of separate Arab Orthodox institutions Failure to end the Greek clerical hegemony

The Arab Orthodox Movement (Arabic: الحركة العربية الأرثوذكسية, romanized: Al-Haraka Al-ʿArabiyya Al-ʾUrthūdhuksiyya) is a political and social movement aiming for the Arabization of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction over the Orthodox communities of Palestine, Israel and Jordan, to which most Christians in the region belong.^[1]

Within the context of rising Arab nationalism in the 19th century, the movement was inspired by the successful precedent of the Arabization of Syria and Lebanon's Antioch Patriarchate in 1899. The movement seeks the appointment of an Arab patriarch, Arab laity control over Jerusalem patriarchate's properties for social and educational purposes, and the use of Arabic as a liturgical language.^[2] Initially a church movement among Palestine and Transjordan's Orthodox Arab Christians in the late 19th century, it was later supported as a Palestinian and Arab nationalist cause and championed by some Arab Muslims, owing to the Greek-dominated patriarchate's early support to Zionism.

The Orthodox laity, which is mostly Arab, maintains that the patriarchate was forcibly Hellenized in 1543, while the Greek clergy says that the patriarchate was historically Greek.^[2] Opposition to the Greek clergy turned violent in the late 19th century, when they came under physical attack by the Arab laity in the streets. The movement held Arab Orthodox conferences, the first of which was in Jaffa in 1923, and most recently in Amman in 2014. One outcome of the 1923 conference was the laity's establishment of tens of Orthodox churches, clubs and schools in Palestine and Jordan.^[3] There were historically also several interventions to solve the conflict by the Ottoman, British (1920–1948), and Jordanian (1948–1967) authorities, owing to the patriarchate's headquarters being located in East Jerusalem. Despite the city coming under Israeli occupation since 1967, the patriarchate has continued to function according to a 1958 Jordanian law, which mandates the clergy hold Jordanian citizenship and speak Arabic.^[4]

To this day, the patriarchate continues to be dominated by Greek clergy and owns vast properties that make it the second largest landowner in Israel.^[1] In recent decades, lawsuits have ensued in Israeli courts between the Arab laity and the patriarchate over ownership of properties. Land sales by the patriarchate to Israeli investors has led to several controversies, the most recent of which led to the dismissal of patriarch Irenaios in 2005.^[5] The patriarch's total control over the patriarchate and its vast properties has led to it being described as resembling a "small absolute kingdom".^[1]