OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, March 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Two groups of foreign Jewish investors had secretly purchased two large properties run by the Greek Orthodox Church in the holy city of Al-Quds, a leading Israeli newspaper revealed on Friday, March 18.

The revelation has raised alarm bells on Jewish attempts to control the occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem), where holy Islamic and Christian sites are based.

It is made a few days after Jewish extremists threatened to strike Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine also located in Al-Quds.

In a one-page article titled "Omar Square in our hands", the Maariv daily said a number of overseas Jewish investors paid millions of dollars to purchase a tract of land in Omar Ibn Khatib Square downtown the Jaffa Gate, which lies at the main entrance to the Old City.

The purchase deal, which was carried out with money transferred through various European banks, was made by ideological Jews who claimed attempting to "liberate the lands of Jerusalem", the Israeli daily was quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying.

Jaffa Gate is the main western entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. It is flanked with shops selling tourist trinkets, mostly Arab-run.

The site is home to two landmark properties managed by two well-known Palestinian families; the Imperial hotel and the Petra hotel.

Neither the hotel managers nor the shop owners had any knowledge of the secret land sale.

In February, Israel’s Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered the government to rescind a decision to enforce a decades-old law under which large tracts of Palestinian land in occupied Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) could be confiscated by Israel.

Palestinian experts have also warned against Israeli plans to drive Palestinian citizens away from Al-Quds under pretexts of development, saying the Jewish state’s real motive is striking a demographic balance between in the overwhelmingly Palestinian city.

The Israel-run Al-Quds Municipality said last year it was ready to "compensate those willing to leave their homes with alternative houses outside the Old City.

A source close to the Greek Orthodox patriarch denied church had any knowledge about the land sale.

The source told AFP that "an internal investigation" was underway to reveal details of the issue.

It stressed that the Jerusalem Patriarch Irineos I would never have agreed to such a transaction and that suspicions were growing that it had been carried out by a Greek Orthodox lawyer who had acted outside the bounds of his authority and then fled the country to avoid detection.

In purchasing tracts of land in the holy city, Jewish investors often use Palestinian middlemen to buy the land in exchange for huge sums of money, according to AFP.

In 1997, three Palestinian property agents who sold land to Jewish investors were found killed.

The revelation of the land sale in the Old City adds to fears over mounting Jewish threats on Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, March 16, Israel private television screened a video showing far right-Jewish extremists, including rabbis, discussing ways of occupying Al-Aqsa Mosque in a bid to sabotage Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza.

Al-Aqsa mosque imam Sheikh Yussuf Abu Sneinan warned on Friday that Jewish threats to storm the holy place were "ticking bombs", holding the Israeli government responsible for any attack against Al-Aqsa mosque.

"Threats of destroying Al-Aqsa and attacking peaceful worshippers are ticking bombs aimed at Muslims and this holy mosque," he said during the Friday prayers.

In response, Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei on Thursday asked Israel to thwart any strike against Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Al-Quds.

In recent months, sources in the Israeli Shin Bet security service have expressed concern regarding possible missile or air bombing attack by individuals or groups on the compound with the purpose of scuttling the Gaza pullout plan, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka'bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.