'We won't do business with him'

2006-01-11 11:07

Ramit Plushnick-Masti

Jerusalem - Israel won't do business with Pat Robertson after the US evangelist said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke was divine punishment for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, an official said on Wednesday, placing a $50m deal with the Christian leader in doubt.

Robertson, a Christian broadcaster, is leading a group of evangelicals who have collected money to build a Christian Heritage Centre in Israel's northern Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

Israel was to provide the land and infrastructure for the project, saying it would bring millions of tourism dollars into the country.

But the project now is in doubt in light of Robertson's comments, said Ido Hartuv, spokesperson for Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson.

"We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don't back these comments," Hartuv said. "We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him."

A day after Sharon's stroke on January 4, Robertson suggested it was punishment for "dividing God's land", a reference to Israel's August pull-out from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV programme The 700 Club. "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine."'

'We can't accept this kind of statement'

Robertson's comments infuriated Israel, and drew condemnation from other Christian leaders and even US President George W Bush.

"We can't accept this kind of statement," Hartuv said.

The ministry's decision was first reported in Wednesday's edition of The Jerusalem Post.

Robertson's Christian Heritage Centre was to be tucked away in 14 hectares of rolling Galilee hills, near key Christian sites such as Capernaum, the Mount of the Beatitudes, where tradition says Jesus delivered the Sermon of the Mount, and Tabgha - on the shores of the Sea of Galilee - where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fish.

Israel was considering leasing the land to the Christians for free. Hirschson predicted it would annually draw up to one million pilgrims who would spend $1.5bn in Israel and support about 40 000 jobs.

Hirschson, however, is one of Sharon's biggest supporters, and a member of the centrist Kadima party recently founded by the prime minister.

Hartuv left the door open to continuing the project, but only with people who don't back Robertson's statements.

"We want to see who in the group supports his (Robertson's) statements. Those who support the statements cannot do business with us. Those that publicly support Ariel Sharon's recovery ... are welcome to do business with us," Hartuv said. "We have to check this very, very carefully."

- AP