wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Israel must ask Palestinian Authority to care for Gaza

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Note #8894 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05470
Sept. 9, 2005

Israel must ask Palestinian Authority
to care for Gaza synagogues, court rules
  
  
by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International  

JERUSALEM - Israel's highest court ordered the government to ask the
Palestinian Authority to protect and care for synagogues left behind in the
Gaza Strip after Israel completes its withdrawal later this month.  

	The government intended to blow up the synagogues to eliminate the
risk that they would be desecrated after the withdrawal. But Jewish groups
appealed to the Israeli High Court, which ordered the government to consider
leaving the synagogues intact and arranging for the Palestinian Authority to
safeguard them.  
  
	In its Sept. 6 ruling, the seven-judge panel said the government of
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should "determine whether there is room" to make
a formal appeal to the Palestinian Authority to safeguard the synagogues.
Almost 9,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip were evacuated last month. Their
homes were demolished.

	The court had ruled earlier that the synagogues could be destroyed if
religious fixtures and decor were preserved. It ordered two synagogues in
prefabricated buildings moved to Israel.

	The justices changed their view after an outcry from religious
Israelis and a ruling from the country's two chief rabbis that the synagogues
were not to be razed.

	The army will be unable to complete the withdrawal until the fate of
the synagogues is settled.  
  
	Palestinian officials had rejected an unofficial appeal through a
U.S. envoy that it take responsibility for the synagogues after the pullout.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie has said that the authority would
prefer that the Gaza synagogues be destroyed by Israel.

	The synagogues' fate also was discussed during recent meetings
involving Israeli and Palestinian officials and leaders of the Lutheran World
Federation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the Lutherans that it
would be better for Israel to relocate the synagogues.

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