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JERUSALEM — Israel
has frozen a $50 million tourism deal with U.S. Christian broadcaster
Pat Robertson because of his suggestion that Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's recent stroke was divine punishment for Israel's pullout
from the Gaza strip.
“We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don’t
back these comments,” Ido Hartuv, a tourism ministry spokesperson, said
on Jan. 11.
Israel had pledged to provide land for a Christian heritage center
Robertson proposed to build on a site overlooking the Sea of
Galilee, where pilgrims could walk in Jesus’ footsteps.
But the tourism ministry said it broke off the negotiations after
his comments on his TV program, "The 700 Club.”
Robertson suggested that the Jan. 4 stroke that has Sharon fighting
for his life in a Jerusalem hospital was punishment for “dividing
God's land,” a reference to Israel’s withdrawal from
the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements last year.
Robertson said on the air: “The Prophet Joel makes it very
clear that God has enmity against those who ‘divide my
land.’”
Robertson’s Christian Heritage Center was to have been
located near important Christian sites in Galilee. The center
was expected to draw around one million pilgrims a year, giving
a boost to the struggling tourist industry and creating about
40,000 jobs.
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