Israel Takes Catholic Church Assets in Tax Dispute
Israel’s Finance Ministry reportedly seized the assets of one or more Catholic Church institutions in Israel over tax issues.
The reports Monday in the Italian media and from a Church news agency did not name the institutions in question, but said the action had been carried out by the Finance Ministry’s chief tax collector, Yehezkel Abrahamoff. Israel is pressing for payment of disputed tax demands.
The Vatican and Israel established full relations in 1994, but negotiations since then have failed to resolve several points, including fiscal status and tax issues regarding Church property in Israel as well as visa restrictions on Arab-Christian priests.
There had been hope that an agreement on these issues was near following Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Israel last month.
In a statement Monday to the Catholic Missionary news agency AsiaNews, Father David Jaeger, the Catholic delegate of the Custody of the Holy Land, called the reported move by Abrahamoff an “extraordinary initiative.”
Jaeger said he hoped that if confirmed, it would “be found to be that of an uninformed individual functionary, and that in the next few hours it will be disowned and overturned by his superiors” in accordance with the treaty obligation to abstain from unilateral actions while negotiations are pending.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
