On September 21, 2015, the Israeli Attorney General announced that compensation would be offered to the Benedictine Monastery of Tabgha. The Church located on the northern bank of the Sea of Galilee was torched on June 18 by terrorists affiliated to the radical right wing in Israel.
On the July 29 and 30, three suspects were arrested. According to Shin Beth, they allegedly belong to “a group of radical ideologists, active since 2013 and suspected of anti-Christian acts and aggression against Palestinian civilians”. A wave of large-scale mobilization and repeated testimonials of solidarity with the local Christian community had preceded the arrests.
On August 27, on a visit to the site of the arson, the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin thought good to remind that “Israel is a democratic country which guarantees the freedom of worship to everybody”, and where “Christian communities should be able to prosper in security”, while His Beatitude Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, expressed his serious concern as to the rising acts of anti-Christian vandalism in Israel. This decision of the Israeli Attorney General comes after the refusal of the Israeli Property Tax Authority to offer compensation for damages caused by this terrorist assault.
By: Calixte des Lauriers – LPJ
