January 12, 2006
by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International

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.

Presbyterian News Service