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Catholics and Orthodox launch protest over a proposed property law and a Jerusalem municipality bid to make churches pay back taxes

Ministers on Sunday postponed a Knesset debate on a bill that would allow Israel to confiscate church properties, after Orthodox and Catholic church leaders shuttered Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre to protest the legislation and a new municipal tax policy. The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee was to discuss on Sunday — and in all probability advance — the bill, which would allow the state to expropriate lands sold by the churches to private investors since 2010.

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