What led to this extra ordinary legal action was that during his leadership of the church, Bishop Abu Assal developed Christ Church school and from a small boarding school orphanage it became a kg-12 school with modern building and more than 1300 students from Nazareth and the suburbs. Bishop Abu Assal’s son Mr. Hanna Abu Assal was appointed as general director of school. Soon after that, the name of the school was changed to “Bishop Riah Educational Campus” to the dismay of many members of the church.

Few months before his retirement, bishop Abu Assal was accused of nepotism because of reports of referring both Anglican school’s life insurance policies to his son in law. A special ecclesiastic commission was formed and its decisions convicted him of nepotism but not of personal gain.

Before stepping down in March 2007 (when he turned 70 according to the Anglican constitution) and handing the leadership to new Bishop Suhail Diwani, Abu Assal formed a non profit organization called “Bishop Riah Educational Organization” and attempted to transfer the school property to the new entity but failed. School administration as well as Bishop Abu Assal himself refused to cooperate with the new bishop and submit financial reports as well as evacuate the office in the school designated according to the church constitution to the residing bishop. Members of Bishop Abu Assal non profit organization include his wife, his nephew, a prominent medical doctor and a known psychologist, one mayor and others.

Today’s decision is the first chapter in ongoing judicial proceedings between the conflicting parties of the Anglican Church in Israel.