Pope will have official seat in the Last
Supper room on Mount Zion in Jerusalem • Deputy Foreign Minister Danny
Ayalon: This is a historic achievement and a symbol that will encourage
tourism.
Shlomo Cesana
Pope Benedict XVI and
Benjamin Netanyahu greet each other in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2009.
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Photo credit: AP  |
A historical agreement has been signed between
Israel and the Vatican, ending a 20 year dispute. Israel has granted
the pope an official seat in the room where the Last Supper is believed
to have taken place, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Israel did not give up its control over the
room, as the Vatican had demanded, but Israel did decide to allow
Vatican representatives a special modicum of control over the site.
An additional caveat of the agreement is a tax exemption that Israel will grant to all of the Vatican's institutions in Israel.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and
Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, Undersecretary of the Holy See for the
Relations with States, sealed the deal on Tuesday. It will be signed in
June at the Vatican.
On Tuesday, Ayalon said that this is a historic achievement and a symbol that will encourage tourism.
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