President Shimon Peres approves of the Vatican’s request that Israel transfer to it authority for six sites in Israel as a gesture as Pope Benedict XVI makes a visit to Israel in a week. The sites include a church in Nazareth and Mount Nahum near the Kinneret.
Peres has put pressure on Interior Minister Eli Yishai to agree to the Vatican’s request. Yishai has so far refused, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have to make the final decision on the matter.