Acquisition of Vitally-Needed Property

Announce to Bahá’í communities, East and West, on the joyous occasion of the hundred and thirty-fifth Anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Birthday, the successful termination of the protracted negotiations, initiated two years ago and culminating in the signature to the contract providing the eventual, formal transfer by the Development Authority of the State of Israel to the Palestine Branch of the American National Spiritual Assembly of the extensive, long-desired, vitally-needed property surrounding and safeguarding for posterity the Most Holy Tomb of the Founder of the Faith, as well as the adjoining Mansion.

The acquired area, raising Bahá’í holdings on the holy plain of Akká from four thousand to one hundred and fifty-five thousand square meters, was exchanged against property donated by children of Zikrullah, grandchildren of Mírzá Muḥammad Qulí, Bahá’u’lláh’s faithful half-brother and companion in exile.

This spontaneous offer contrasts with the shameful action of the family in the sale to non-Bahá’ís of the property in the neighborhood of the Jordan valley purchased through the instrumentality of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during Bahá’u’lláh’s lifetime, pursuant to His instructions and alluded to in His writings.

The forty acre property acquired in this single transaction almost equals the entire Bahá’í international endowments purchased in the course of sixty years in the vicinity of the Báb’s Sepulcher on the slope of Mount Carmel.

The exchange of said property, including land and houses, was made possible by the precipitate flight of the former Arab owners, traditional supporters of the old Covenant-breakers and descendants of the notorious enemy of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá who placed his residence at the disposal of the Committee of Investigation.