Posted on 05/04/2009 9:38:49 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
Peres Presses for Cave-In to Vatican?
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres is pressuring Interior Minister Eli Yishai to sign away six properties demanded by the Vatican, including Mt. Tabor and a church in Nazareth, according to IDF Army Radio.
The Vatican has long demanded that Israel give it these and other properties, while Israel has refused. With the visit of Pope Benedict XVI only a week away, tensions between the sides are rising.
Minister Yishai, of the Sephardic hareidi-religious Shas party, has thus far refused to give his approval – and staffers in the President’s office say they’ll seek a legal way to give away the areas without Yishai’s approval, IDF Army Radio reports. An official denial of the report has been issued by the President’s office.
Israel and the Vatican have been negotiating for more than ten years on various fiscal issues, including taxation of Church properties, the removal of certain areas from the pool of areas that Israel might confiscate, and the transfer of specific places to Vatican control.
The six places that Peres believes Israel should give the Vatican are: Mt. Tabor, Capernaum and Mt. of Beatitudes on the north Kinneret shore, and three churches: Gethsemane (Gat Shmanim) Church in the Kidron (Jehoshaphat) Valley between the Old City and Mt. of Olives, the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and one in Tamra.
In addition, the Vatican demands control over the Last Supper Room in the Mt. Zion building that houses King David’s Tomb. The building was granted to the Diaspora Yeshiva over 40 years ago, and yeshiva heads fear that the Catholic Church wishes to turn it into a pilgrimage site for hundreds of thousands of Catholics and hold religious services there.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
including taxation of Church properties
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1082901.html
Peres wants to hand over Christian sites in Israel to Vatican
Can someone actually post or link any evidence of any Vatican demand? They have stated and supported a case for ensuring the long term access to Christian sites in predominantly Arab and Muslim regions, but I am not aware of any demands.
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