Dullest, Taxes

In the aftermath of the pope’s visit to Israel in May, this report came right out of the blue:

Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) -  The Chief Tax Collector at Israel’s Finance Ministry, Yehezkel Abrahamoff, has notified institutions of the Catholic Church in Israel that he has seized their funds, in order to force them to submit at once to all of the fiscal demands that he considers applicable to them, ahead of the Agreement on the fiscal status of the Church, which is being negotiate, among other things, between the Holy See and the State of Israel.

In the last few hours, AsiaNews has received both documentation and testimony to this effect. The institutions concerned have, however, insisted on not being named, for fear of reprisals on the part of the Tax Authority. The radical initiative of Mr. Abrahamoff comes only a few weeks after the departure from Israel of Pope Benedict XVI, whose visit was thought to favour precisely progress towards the much awaited Agreement between the Holy See and the Jewish State. At this time it is not yet possible to know whether it is a matter of the personal decision of a single functionary, albeit a particularly powerful one, or whether it reflects a radical change of direction by the Netanyahu Government. An expert on Church-State relations in Israel, reached by AsiaNews, says he is confident that the Government knows nothing of what he says must be the idea of a single individual. The expert foresees that when the Head of the Government is informed of the matter, the functionary will be reprimanded and the attachment orders annulled, with apologies.

Whoever it was on the Israeli side who made the decision to seize Church funds is stupid and malicious. It is in Israel’s interest to encourage the small but enthusiastic Hebrew-speaking Catholic congregation in Israel, which links the Holy See to the Jewish State. I hopes that the suggestion in the Asia News report is correct that this action is the missteps of an individuals rather than an institutionalized error.