The Vatican and Israel: showdown over new archbishop
Israel-Vatican, Politics, 8/8/1998

"The appointment of any of our church members is merely the sole right of the church. It is not the right of any official in the Israeli government to interfere," said the Apostolic delegate in Jerusalem, Petro Sambi, referring to the latest reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to interfere with the Vatican to cancel the appointment of Archbishop Butros Muallem from Nazareth.

Archbishop Sambi serves as the Vatican's ambassador to Israel and the highest Apostolic Delegate to the Palestinian government, since Palestine is not a fully independent state.

Netanyahu's new spokesman, Aviv Bushinsky, confirmed that Netanyahu had met with the former Archbishop Emile Shoufani and with some other notables of the Greek Catholic community in Israel. He claimed that Israel sees itself as the only sovereign power in the Galilee and as such "it is the right of the government to raise its voice on issues like this one."

Bushinsky added that Netanyahu had received reports from the General Security Services to the effect of Archbishop Butros "being linked to hostile elements including Syrian intelligence, the former Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hilarion Cappucci whom Israel deported out of the country in mid 70s, and PLO Political Department head Farouk Qaddoumi." Bushinsky said that those three parties had acted intensively to cancel the appointment of Shoufani who, he said, was elected democratically.

Shoufani was elected almost a year ago by the synods of the Greek Catholic Church in Lebanon but the Pope immediately suspended his appointment. Sources close to the church said that immediately after Shoufani was elected, a number of bishops from his own church sent documents and letters to the Vatican asking for his immediate termination from the new job.

The Pope accepted their arguments and issued a decree appointing Muallem, who was until then the bishop of the Greek Catholic community in Brazil. Muallem, however, refused to enter his new job saying he would prefer to be elected by the Lebanon-based synods and "with due respect not by an apostolic decree." He was finally elected on the beginning of August this year.

Palestinian sources in Galilee noted that the Israeli government was annoyed at the fact that Muallem, and not Shoufani, was finally elected for the post. "Israel is worried that Muallem would use his authority to fight against illegal land transactions which involve Christian properties that are sold to Israelis or to Jews," said one source in Nazareth. The source could not rule out the possibility of Israel denying entry permits to Archbishop Muallem since there were hints that came out of the prime minister's office saying that Muallem is a Lebanese national and might not be allowed to stay in Israel.

According to press reports, Netanyahu's special advisor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Avitar, was behind the government intervention in this purely church matter. The reports said that Avitar, who himself is an ex-Mossad officer, had utilized every opportunity he had to lobby against Archbishop Muallem. The Vatican lately had strongly demanded of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to stop his campaign.

Early last week, reports from Rome said the Vatican had complained about the fact that Netanyahu tried to influence the appointment of the highest Catholic authority in the Galilee area. Immediately afterwards, the deputy spokesman of the Vatican, Father Chero Santaniti, gave an interview to Maariv Hebrew daily in which he said that governments "know very well that any attempt to interfere in religious appointments is a red flag for relations between the Vatican and other countries. Only dictatorial nations try to influence these decisions."

An Israeli Knesset member, meanwhile, has demanded an investigation to be conducted into the way Netanyahu acted in this affair. Yona Yahav of the opposition Labor Party said that Netanyahu's intervention in the case would harm Israel's relations with the Vatican.

He called on Netanyahu to stop dealing with the Christian community in Israel "as if it was a section of the Likud Party." According to Yahav, Avitar was fired from the Mossad after he was found unfit for his job.

Previous Stories:
  Jerusalem committee calls for halting normalization with Israel   (7/31/1998)
  Vatican concerned over Israeli decision to establish greater Jerusalem   (6/26/1998)
  Vatican, al-Azhar sign historic accord   (5/29/1998)

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