Israel has extended an olive branch to the Vatican by relaxing visa rules for Catholic clergy entering that country.The concession comes in the wake of Foreign Office and US pressure on the Jewish State to restart stalled talks between Jerusalem and Rome on the legal rights of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel.
On Jan 14 Israel’s embassy to the Holy See released a statement saying Minister of Interior Affairs Meir Shitrit had “proposed some easing up in the issue of visas for church personnel in Israel.”
Under the new plan senior Roman Catholic leaders would be granted multiple entry visas, while “all the other functionaries will receive a visa to return by seeking the authorization of the Ministry of the Interior before leaving Israel." Visas requests from clerics who are citizens of Arab countries will also be given a higher priority, the embassy statement said.
Visa restrictions have been a point of contention between Israel and the Vatican, as well as with the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Churches have claimed that clergy travelling between Israel and Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories have been subjected to unduly burdensome visa requirements.
During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the former Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt Rev Riah Abu al-Assal was blocked from visiting his congregations in Lebanon, and regularly skirmished with Israel’s Minister of the Interior over his right to visit his congregations in Arab countries.
Many clergy were required to apply for an entry visa to return after each trip outside Israel, while Roman Catholic priests and seminarians from Arab countries had been subject to strict scrutiny, with some denied a re-entry visa after leaving Israel.
The embassy statement noted that “because of the restrictive security measures that Israel is obliged to apply, and which make necessary a rigorous regulation of entrance proceedings and maximal caution in checkpoints, this proposal represents a gesture of great openness and good will on the part of Israel's government."
The Israeli statement made no mention on the possible easing of visas restrictions on Anglican and Orthodox clergy, however.
Israel’s failure to resolve its disputes with the Vatican has been a “distraction from achieving” peace with the Palestinians, the US Ambassador to the Vatican claimed.
On Jan 10 Ambassador Francis Rooney told Vatican Radio the US and Britain had a “consistent interest” in seeing the settlement of “all these ancillary issues about church property” between the Roman Catholic Church and Israel.
Rooney said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “had contacted the government of Israel” urging them to “stay at the table and negotiate” the resolution of the property tax dispute.
A final settlement to the 10 years of talks between Israel and the Vatican would shift the “focus to the big picture, solving the Palestinian Israel conflict in the way that gives a legitimate Palestinian state but also preserves the self-confidence and security of Israel,” he said.
Israel’s concession on visas comes in the midst of stalled talks with the Vatican over the implementation of the 1993 Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel. In November the Vatican’s former ambassador to Israel told an Italian newspaper Israel lacked the political willpower to implement the terms of the 1993 treaty.
Ten years after Israel and the Vatican signed a treaty dealing with resolving disputes over taxation of church property, restitution for "unjustly seized" land, and "equal compensation" for work performed by Church social service agencies, the Israeli government had done nothing to implement the reforms, Archbishop Pietro Sambi said.
Last month one of the Vatican’s negotiators with Israel, Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, said the latest round of talks held Dec 13 in Jerusalem had achieved little of substance.
"As long as we talk about God, about peace, the promotion of the rights of women and other human rights, it is easy to reach agreement. But when we start discussing the details, and I refer in particular to the issue of taxes, then differences emerge," Archbishop Veglio said.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told a Rome press conference there were no plans for Pope Benedict XVI to visit Israel. Although the Pope had “expressed on many occasions his desire to travel” to Israel, Israel needed to show some “positive signs to encourage an act as important as a visit," he said.
No formal statement on the latest Israeli proposals has been made by the Roman Catholic Church so far. The next meeting of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel takes place in May at the Vatican.
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