MIDDLE EAST: Court ruling favors Jerusalem diocese, not former bishop, in dispute over school's ownership
Episcopal News Service. May 28, 2008 [052808-02]
Matthew Davies
The Israeli High Court has ruled in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem in a legal battle with its former diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, who claimed ownership of the diocese's Christ School in Nazareth immediately after his retirement on March 31, 2007.
The High Court ruling upheld the Magistrate Court's earlier decision in Nazareth which ordered the former bishop and all founding members of the Amouta society, which had been established a few days before El-Assal retired, to refrain from entering or managing the school and collecting pupils' fees. The court, which issued an interim injunction, has not yet pronounced the final decision regarding the ownership of the school and the fate of the money and fees collected by the society.
El-Assal's successor and incumbent Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, after repeated efforts to settle the matter out of court, says that the legal case has been in the church's best interests and a necessary measure to secure the diocesan institutions for future mission.
"Several persons, with high standing in the community, were asked to intervene and urge Bishop Riah to rescind his claim and hand over the school to the diocese, but all efforts were to no avail," Dawani said in recent statement. "Therefore, the diocese, after exhausting all such endeavors, was compelled to resort to the judicial system in order to regain its rights."
Other cases of financial mismanagement currently being studied at two diocesan schools are attributed to the former bishop's administration, Dawani said, noting that one week prior to his retirement, El-Assal "evacuated the diocesan offices and was reported to have burned documents. So it seems like he did not want some important information to remain on file."
In the weeks leading up to his retirement, El-Assal sought a Power of Attorney from the Church Mission Society (CMS) in Great Britain, which holds the title to the school's land, Dawani said. "He then formed an Israeli society by the name of 'Bishop Riah Educational Campus' in an attempt to legally transfer the school's property into his control, and without any authorization from the diocese he set about managing the school and collecting fees from the pupils and their parents, depositing the monies in his newly established society's account and not in the school's account."
In August 2007, CMS, as the duly registered owner of the school's land, revoked El-Assal's Power of Attorney and Dawani was authorized to manage the land and the premises in his capacity as the incumbent diocesan bishop.
"It is worth mentioning," Dawani said, "that the Amouta society formed by Bishop Riah includes members of his immediate family -- his wife and his nephew."
Lawyers for the diocese told Episcopal News Service that El-Assal and the society formed by him have continued to claim in court the ownership of the renamed school, insisting that this was a private educational project and not the church's property.
"The land on which the school is built was given to the church for the benefit of the church's mission and the benefit of the people being served," said Dawani.
Meanwhile, El-Assal's daughter, Rania, has sent out bulk emails that have included inflammatory remarks about Dawani and called for his resignation.
The two lawyers working on behalf of the diocese said that El-Assal "does not want to accept Bishop Suheil as being the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem."
El-Assal had publicly endorsed the other candidate who stood with Dawani in the 2006 election for bishop coadjutor of the Jerusalem diocese. Shortly after the election, El-Assal told Episcopal News Service that he was not satisfied with the results and did not approve of Dawani taking over as his successor.
A few months after El-Assal's retirement, he was asked by the Diocesan Standing Committee to leave the school premises "so that Bishop Dawani could take on his role in administering the school," one of the lawyers said, noting that the former bishop did not respond to that request. The diocese also discovered that the retired bishop was on the school's payroll.
The newly renamed Bishop Riah Educational Campus, largely built with funding from abroad, has Bishop Riah's son, Hanna, as principal. He also had refused to comply with the requests of the diocese, stating that he is not a diocesan employee. "However, since the court's ruling, Hanna is showing some signs of cooperation," said Dawani, adding that he will guarantee Hanna El-Assal's position as the principal of the school "as long as he abides by the Constitution and regulations of the diocese, which state that the incumbent bishop is head of all of diocesan institutions."
Some of the diocese's institutions have been left in poor financial shape after El-Assal's nine-year tenure as bishop, Dawani said. "After Bishop Riah left, we realized that we had so many unsettled financial issues," said Dawani, highlighting the case of one engineer who had been working for the diocese for 10 years and was still owed $600,000.
The lawyers said that Dawani is the first Jerusalem bishop to appoint an internal independent auditor who, along with elected diocesan leaders, is working to restore the financial welfare of the institutions. They also said they suspect El-Assal continues to raise money without mentioning that he is a former diocesan and a retired bishop.
In an email, dated March 13, El-Assal outlined his vision for building a new school or educational center and acknowledged that he is in the process of raising the necessary funds. He lists Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, among the people who have "expressed great excitement" about the project. "Now that Bishop Riah Educational Campus has been instituted as a Society (Charity)…it will channel the seed money for the project," El-Assal said.
The diocesan lawyers estimate that it may take another four years until a final judgment in the main cases are made by the courts. "But we have a new spirit within the diocese," said Dawani, "and we will move forward with integrity as we strive for stability and security for our institutions."