‘Miracle’ church denied compensation for terrorist attack
Tax officials say Church of the Multiplication doesn't qualify for restitution because it was torched out of religious conviction
Israeli tax officials rejected a Catholic Church appeal for compensation after it was torched by suspected Jewish extremists, saying the incident which damaged the holy site wasn’t deemed a terrorist attack, Channel 2 reported Wednesday.
By law, the government compensates victims of terrorist attacks and war for damage to property. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon both referred to June’s torching of the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes as an act of terrorism, the Israel Tax Authority disagreed.
The church, situated on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is where Catholics believe Jesus fed a multitude through miraculous multiplication of fish and bread. Israeli authorities have charged three Jewish extremists for allegedly setting fire to part of the church complex and scrawling “Idols will be cast out” on a nearby wall.
Significant damage was inflicted to the church.
The church filed a request for compensation for damages inflicted in the incident, but their appeal was rejected.
Tax Authority official Amir Cohen wrote to the church earlier this week saying that “I wasn’t convinced that it was damage whose origin was ‘an act of violence’ as defined in the property tax regulations, that is to say an act of violence stemming from the Israeli-Arab conflict.”
Church officials appealed to President Reuven Rivlin, who visited the Church of the Multiplication before his state visit to the Vatican last week. The president’s office in turn took up the matter with the Government Secretary’s office, which said it would find a solution to the issue.
The Tax Authority said in response that the charges filed against the three suspects in the church arson found that “they acted out of religious motivation, and that ‘they considered Christians idolators and their expulsion a commandment.'”
“In light of the stated, the property tax compensation fund, which according to law is required to pay compensations only for damages of war or damage from terrorism on the basis of the Israeli-Arab conflict, is prevented from compensating the church for the damaged caused to it.”