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ISRAEL-CANCEL (UPDATED) Dec-16-2004 (570 words) xxxi
Vatican delegation astonished by cancellation of meeting with Israel
By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Vatican delegation members were astonished when a Dec. 15 meeting with the Israeli Foreign Ministry aimed at finalizing taxation issues was canceled hours before the meeting was to take place, said a source close to the delegation.
"The reaction in the church to the last-minute cancellation is astonishment at what appears to be a pattern of last-minute, unilateral cancellations by Israel of crucially important meetings," said a Catholic source close to the Vatican delegation.
No reason was given for the cancellation, he said.
"This was a meeting for which (the Israelis) were preparing for 12 years," he said. "Every time we are getting close to an issue they withdraw. It is very perplexing. How can the issue be resolved if they won't even talk about it?"
The source said there were to be two meetings, one to finalize the taxation question and a follow-up the next day to discuss the implementation process of the hoped-for agreement.
The two delegations met Dec. 16 to discuss technical issues left over from other meetings. Two major issues still needed to be negotiated: the local property tax issue and the issue of right of due process over church property disputes, the source said.
The Vatican delegation has begun to feel the need for a change in the level of Israeli representation at the meetings because the people who have been attending the meetings are "low-level functionaries with no authority to negotiate," said the church source.
The tax issues are important for the church but trivial for Israel, he said.
The source said that regarding taxes the church was seeking to "confirm an exemption which was in place when Israel became a state and which was in place until two years ago."
The church also is asking that property disputes be "decided in court and not by politicians," the source said.
Another meeting is scheduled for Jan. 13.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment.
In November, the delegations met briefly on the topic, and at the time Israeli Franciscan Father David Jaeger, an expert on church-state relations in Israel, told Catholic News Service that settling the issue was a matter of "survival of the church."
He said that the church's tax status was one of the issues to be resolved according to the Fundamental Agreement signed by the Holy See and Israel in December 1993.
Municipal laws in Israel require a religious institution to pay one-third of its property taxes to the local municipality.
"Monasteries are largely built on areas with relatively few residents, with no income but donations," and thus are not in a position to pay property taxes, said Father Jaeger. If the institutions are forced to pay the taxes, he said, a number of churches and monasteries would have to close, "and that would diminish the presence of the church (in the Holy Land)."
Jewish institutions are largely funded by the state and do not have the same financial considerations as the Catholic Church, he said.
The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the largest landholders in Jerusalem. Among its land is the property where the Israeli Parliament now sits, but since the municipal property tax is paid by the occupant, the change in the municipal law does not affect the Greek Orthodox Church in the same way, Father Jaeger said.
Other Christian churches are closely following the Vatican-Israeli negotiations, he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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