Vatican says agreement will not recognize Israeli occupation

(June 13, 2012) An eventual agreement between Israel and the Vatican over property taxes and property rights, in no way will imply that the Vatican recognizes Israel's claims over East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a top Vatican official said. Vatican and Israeli representatives are continuing their long-running negotiations over the legal and financial status of Catholic Church property in Israel, but the Vatican has excluded from the discussion - property located in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, said Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, Vatican’s undersecretary for relations with states. Prior to the Vatican-Israeli commission's negotiating session on Tuesday (June 12) at the Vatican, news reports from Israel and the Palestinian territories suggested that the Vatican would indirectly recognize Israeli control over the disputed territories by negotiating how Israel would tax church property, including in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel annexed in 1967. Msgr. Balestrero told Vatican Radio on Tuesday that while some of the church properties facing heavy tax burdens under Israeli law are in the disputed areas, the Vatican-Israeli agreement would concern only property located in the territory internationally recognized as belonging to Israel. He said the confusion was caused by an improper use of a working document, which already had been changed. While the Vatican-Israeli commission said that "significant progress was made toward the conclusion of an agreement," members said they would meet again in December in Israel.