The Greek Foreign Ministry has been alarmed by information about the expansion of encroachments by Israeli settlers on land belonging to the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Abba Gerasimos the Jordanite in Jericho. According to Kathimerini, a first meeting was already held yesterday, Wednesday, on how to handle the case. It is a historic monastery, located north of the Dead Sea, in the West Bank, and according to tradition was built in the 5th century by St. Gerasimos himself. For Athens, as has been demonstrated in the case of the Monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai, the preservation of the property of Greek Orthodox monasteries is of crucial importance. As noted in the article, the greater Jericho area has been the focus of Israeli settler pressure in recent months, with at least five new outposts which are always a precursor to the encroachments that usually follow. Tagged under