From:       Eddie Chumney
To:            heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject:       Israel in the News: February 7 - 16, 2000

                             Israel in the News
                 February 7  to February 16, 2000

JERUSALEM

ARAFAT, POPE TO SIGN BILATERAL PACT TODAY

By Lamia Lahoud Jerusalem (February 15) Jerusalem Post & Reuters
[combined stories]

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is to meet with Pope
John Paul II at the Vatican today and sign an accord to normalize
relations between the PA and Roman Catholic churches in
Jerusalem.  Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei
told The Jerusalem Post that the agreement indicates a
recognition by the Catholic Church of Palestinian claims to the
city.  He said the PA was lobbying international support for its
claim to east Jerusalem.

Emile Jarjoui, the PLO official who led talks with the Vatican,
added that the agreement would "regulate the relationship between
the Palestinian Authority and the Catholic churches in Jerusalem.
The agreement would also state the Vatican's position regarding
Jerusalem, the peace process, and Palestinian rights."  The
Vatican has called Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem illegal
and does not recognize Israeli sovereignty there.

Arafat will also pay an official visit to the Italian government
as part of his diplomatic campaign to gather support for
Palestinian positions in the final status talks.  Arafat has been
lobbying for his idea of sharing undivided Jerusalem, and
creating Vatican-style sovereignty in the Old City, his spokesman
Nabil Abu Rudaineh said.  PA officials concede privately that
Israel would only accept the idea if it would keep the Jewish
Quarter and the Western Wall.

The PA hopes to get the Vatican's backing for the idea.  So far
the Vatican and the international community have supported
internationalizing the Old City, an idea which both Israel and
the PA reject, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said.
However, Qurei said, should Israel and the PA fail to reach an
agreement on sharing Jerusalem, the PA would agree to create an
international city in the Old City, as stated in UN Resolution
181.

Shaath said the PA was waiting for Israel to come with some
suggestion of sharing Jerusalem to the final status talks, but so
far Israeli negotiators have not addressed the subject.

Afif Safieh, director of the office of representation of the PLO
to the Holy See, said in a telephone call from London that the
accord would be signed after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
meets the Pope at the Vatican on Tuesday.  "The agreement will be
signed by the PLO on behalf of, and to the benefit of, the
Palestinian Authority by Executive Committee member member Emil
Jarjoui and Vatican Foreign Minister archbishop Jean-Louis
Tauran," Safieh said.  Tauran is the Vatican's ambassador to
Israel and the Pope's representative to Jerusalem and Palestinian
territories.

"The agreement specifies very clearly that the Vatican rejects
all unilateral measures taken by Israel in Jerusalem which it
considers morally and legally unacceptable," Safieh said.  "It
says that there can be no equitable, just and comprehensive peace
in the Middle East without the implementation of United Nations
resolutions which call for Israel's withdrawal from occupied
land," he said.

FOREIGN MINISTRY DIRECTOR GENERAL MEETS THE APOSTOLIC NUNCIO
Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jerusalem, 16
February 2000

In a meeting today (Feb 16) in the Foreign Ministry between
Director General Eytan Bentsur and Archbishop Pietro Sambi
following the agreement signed yesterday between the Vatican and
the PLO, Bentsur stated that the political preamble to the
agreement, and the specific article that deals with Jerusalem,
are not acceptable to Israel.  Israel rejects the criticism
implied in the agreement regarding freedom of conscience and
worship in Jerusalem and regarding free access to the holy sites.
Never have these principles been respected in Jerusalem to the
extent that they are now respected and practiced in the capital
of Israel, under Israeli rule.

The Director General of the Foreign Ministry added that in
addition to the essential problems, the timing of the signing of
the agreement was unfortunate.  Director General Bentsur also
stated that the above mentioned agreement is apparently in
conflict with the understandings and agreements between the State
of Israel and the Vatican, and that in the next few days we will
examine the degree of compatibility between these agreements.

The Director General of the Foreign Ministry noted to Archbishop
Sambi that Israel views the upcoming visit of the Pope in the
region as an important historical mission, adding that we are
expecting a message of peace and conciliation that will not
include any pre-determination of the results of the negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinians.

GOV'T: VATICAN MEDDLING WITH PA PEACE TALKS
By Judy Siegel and News Agencies Jerusalem (February 16)
Jerusalem Post

The government yesterday accused the Vatican of interfering in
the peace talks with the Palestinians by signing an accord with
the PLO that cautioned Israel to refrain from unilateral
decisions affecting Jerusalem.  The agreement was the most
significant development in the Palestine Liberation
Organization's relations with the Vatican since official ties
were established in 1994.  It came ahead of next month's historic
visit here by the pope.

In signing the agreement yesterday, the Vatican joined the
Palestinians in strongly condemning Israel's hold over all of
Jerusalem as "morally and legally unacceptable."  The two sides
also signed an agreement that called for an internationally
guaranteed statute to preserve "the proper identity and sacred
character" of the city.  The text did not mention Israel, which
considers Jerusalem its indivisible capital and has repeatedly
ignored previous Vatican calls for such a statute.

Such strong wording in the bilateral agreement appeared to take
Israel by surprise.  "We express our dismay," said Zvi Tal,
spokesman of the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See.  Tal said that
while the Vatican's stance was known, yesterday's action amounted
to interference in ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and
the Palestinians.  He also said the Palestinians appeared to
breach an agreement with Israel, limiting the types of further
agreements they could make.

The accord covers the Vatican's relations with the PLO and the
status of churches and the freedom of worship in the Palestinian
territories.  It was signed on the same day that Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Pope John Paul II and
sprang a last-minute invitation - accepted by the pope - to add
another Palestinian city, Jericho, to his itinerary.  He is also
scheduled to visit Bethlehem and a Palestinian refugee camp.

The preamble of the basic agreement declares that an "equitable
solution" for Jerusalem based on international resolutions is
"fundamental for a just and lasting peace."  It says that
"unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character
and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable."


RABBI LAU SETS GROUND RULES FOR PAPAL VISIT
IsraelWire-2/9

In a statement issued on Monday by Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Yisrael
Meir Lau, it was stated that a meeting between the religious
leader and Pope John Paul II in March would have to entail the
Pope coming to the Chief Rabbis.

Contradicting earlier reports, Rabbi Lau rejected a planned
itinerary presented by Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Haim Ramon,
calling upon the Chief Rabbis to meet with the Pope at the
Western Wall.  Concurring with the position of Chief Sephardic
Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, Rabbi Lau stated the Pope must meet
with the Chief Rabbis on their turf.  Earlier, it was reported
that Rabbi Lau accepted a meeting at the Western Wall,
interpreting it as a de-facto recognition of Israel's sovereignty
over all portions of Jerusalem by the Vatican.

"He will come to meet us in a place convenient for him for
reasons of health and for reasons of security," Rabbi Lau told
Israel's Channel Two TV.  Rabbi Lau told Channel Two that if the
pontiff refuses to meet in the Office of the Chief Rabbinate, "I
wish him all the best," adding that he does not believe the
leader of the Christian world would visit Israel without meetings
with the Chief Rabbis.

POPE AGREES TO MEET CHIEF RABBIS AT HECHAL SHLOMO
By Haim Shapiro Jerusalem February 10 Jerusalem Post

Vatican officials responded to the sensitivities of Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu
Bakshi-Doron by arranging for the meeting among the three to take
place at Hechal Shlomo, the former seat of the Chief Rabbinate in
Jerusalem, Papal Nuncio Monsignor Pietro Sambi said last night.

The diplomatic representative of the Holy See was speaking at a
symposium arranged by The Elijah School for the Study of Wisdom
in World Religions and Sacred Heart University's Center for
Christian-Jewish Understanding on the significance of the
impending papal visit next month.  Originally, Vatican officials
had planned that the Jewish and Catholic leaders would meet at
the Western Wall.

"[The chief rabbis] expressed a sensitivity that they would feel
more respected if there was a visit of the pope to them," Sambi
said.  He said that the chief rabbis had felt that since the pope
was the pilgrim and the visitor, it was he who should call upon
them.  He added that another factor was that the site should be
accessible to John Paul II, who is 82.  It was apparently for
this reason that the present seat of the chief rabbinate, in an
office building on the western outskirts of Jerusalem with more
problematic access, was considered inappropriate.  Sambi added
that the pope is to visit the mufti of Jerusalem at his offices
near Al-Aksa.  "What is important is that everyone is equally
respected," the nuncio said.


PROTEST PLANNED AGAINST PAPAL VISIT TO ISRAEL
IsraelWire-2/10

Shalom International plans to protest what it calls the
"hypocrisy" of the Pope during his planned visit to Israel in
March.  Shalom International officials are planning to protest
"The Pope's silence and hypocrisy regarding the Vatican's role in
the Holocaust and its present attack upon the Jewish Community."
As reported earlier by ISRAELWIRE, Pope John Paul II is planning
a six-day visit to Israel in March.

Shalom International pertaining to the upcoming visit issued the
following statement.

"The Pope will visit Jerusalem, the Pope wants to see split up
and not in Israeli control, and at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust
Memorial, he will hypocritically identify with the victims of the
Holocaust.  But this Pope has remained 'silent' about a 26 ft.
crucifix placed illegally at Auschwitz, the world's largest
Jewish cemetery.  Then we see 350 additional crosses placed on
this sacred ground in 1999, and no Jewish Stars of David.  Then
we see the "SS" barracks at Birkenau where most of the killings
took place in the destruction of millions of Jews, and now these
barracks have been turned into a Church, while Polish Cardinal
Glemp calls Jews 'molesters of the Poles' for protesting against
this outrage to 'Vaticanize' and 'Christianize' the Holocaust.
Now the Polish Government is allowing a German developer to add
fast food, banking and post office to crassly commercialize this
'museum', instead of showing respect at this 'death camp' and
Jewish cemetery.

"As a result of our 24 protests in 18 cities in 4 countries, the
350 crosses are removed while the rest remains and is in
violation of Poland's agreement with UNESCO in 1979 for no
signage or commercialism in 1000 meters from this death camp, now
reduced to 100 meters.  With millions of dollars in Torahs, holy
books and Jewish artifacts stolen in the Holocaust and under the
Vatican today, and yet to be returned to the Jewish people; with
the Vatican's books on its role in the Holocaust closed and a too
little too late statement from the Vatican on all of this while
preparing 'sainthood' for Pope Pius XII, 'Hitler's Pope', who
financed through the Vatican Bank, Hitler's Holocaust against the
Jews..... the Vatican through its 'rat line', allowed the Nazi
murderers to go free while Germany paid the pensions of 75,000 of
these mass killers.  Through Vatican 'silence' Germany has
ignored for 55 years all survivors of 'slave labor' by every
German company who worked to death 14 million, or led them to the
gas chambers and waited for them to be dead before doing anything
about compensations, which amounts to a 'bone' thrown for public
relations purposes, while they are 'killed again' by the apathy
and politics engineered by the Vatican.  Now the revisionism, the
trivialization and commercialism of the 'death camps' themselves
and the intent to minimize what really happened and all of this
from the same Pope who won't even admit that his childhood home
was owned by Jews sent to the gas chambers and the government has
made his home a museum to charge monies and no identity of this
historical truth, which is what Poland is doing to the death
camps.

"Poland teaches that the "Jews" were in charge during Soviet
occupation and killed more Poles than Jews lost at Auschwitz and
therefore the Holocaust was justified."

POPE JOHN PAUL WILL VISIT A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP
February 12, 2000 Bethlehem (Reuters)

Pope John Paul will visit a Palestinian refugee camp in his
historic Holy Land pilgrimage next month and back refugee demands
to return to their homes, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said on
Saturday.  Sabbah, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in
Jerusalem, said the Pope will tour Dheisheh refugee camp near the
West Bank city of Bethlehem, the traditional site of Jesus'
birth, during his Holy Land visit from March 20 to 26.  "The Holy
See will tell Palestinian refugees at the camp that you...have
the same dignity of other human beings, and your pains and
suffering are part of the general sufferings and pain we carry in
our hearts," Sabbah told a Bethlehem news conference.

He was speaking after a five-day meeting of the Catholic church's
first synod in the Holy Land to set a new agenda for the next
decade.  "The fact that the Pope will visit the camp is to warn
that this group of people who live in unnatural conditions have
to live in natural conditions like the others, Palestinians and
non-Palestinians," he said.  Sabbah said the Catholic church
maintained "that all refugees who were expelled from their homes
have the natural right to return to their homes and land."

In a final declaration issued at the end of the synod, the
Catholic church said Christians, Jews and Muslims should enjoy
equal religious rights in Jerusalem and that Palestinians and
Israelis had to share equal sovereignty over the city.
Palestinians view Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in
the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of a future independent
state.

Vatican officials have said the 79-year-old Polish-born Pope
would also visit Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial,
Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall, and al-Aqsa mosque,
Islam's third holiest shrine.


PEACE PROCESS

ISRAEL STEPS UP SECURITY AS PEACE DEADLINE PASSES UNMET
Jerusalem, Feb 13 (AFP) -

Security was beefed up across Israel and the occupied territories
on Sunday because of bomb threats, as a target date for a peace
deal passed with the Palestinians lashing out at Israel for
breaking yet another deadline.  Israeli security services have
information that two Palestinian militant cells may be planning
attacks in Israel in the next few days, a military source said.
Police and army units were out in force in markets, shopping
centres and bus stations while roadblocks had been set up on
access roads into cities, particularly on the outskirts of
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  Israel army units have also been put on
alert and were stepping up checks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
territories.

It follows the arrest of a group of Palestinians Friday linked to
two bomb-makers belonging to the fundamentalist Hamas group,
which is violently opposed to the 1993 Oslo peace accords and has
carried out dozens of anti-Israel attacks since then.  One of the
men was killed and another severely burned Thursday while
preparing explosives near the northern West Bank town of Nablus.

The heightened security comes on the day Israel and the
Palestinians were to have reached a framework accord on the most
contentious issues dividing them, including the fate of
Jerusalem, Palestinian statehood, refugees and Jewish settlements
in the occupied territories.  They had agreed in the Egyptian
resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in September to conclude a framework
accord by February 13, ahead of a final settlement seven months
later, in a deal that broke months of deadlock under the previous
rightwing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.  But despite
intensified negotiations, the two sides remain far apart on all
the key issues and talks were frozen last week after a row
between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat over a delayed Israeli troop withdrawal from the
West Bank.


ARAFAT USES MISSED DEADLINE TO PUSH FOR STATE IN SEPTEMBER
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem 2/14/00

Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat did not let the
missed deadline for producing the framework of a permanent peace
treaty with Israel pass quietly on Sunday, as he courted support
from Arab/Islamic states and the Vatican for a declaration this
year of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Once touted by Israel and the PA as an important target date in
the Oslo peace process, February 13 came and went yesterday with
the two sides still miles apart over interim IDF withdrawals and
such major final-status issues as borders, settlements, refugees
and Jerusalem.  Although the sides have kept open informal lines
of communications since talks broke off at the start of the
month, there is no sign that official negotiations will resume
any time soon.

Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak failed at a summit
two weeks ago to bridge differences over interim pullbacks which
might have cleared the way for last-minute progress in
final-status talks.  The cut-off date arrived without one word
committed to writing, a result which fell far short of the
milestone in and framework agreement envisioned in the Sharm
e-Sheikh Memorandum signed last September.

The Palestinians continue to blame Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak for sabotaging the schedule because of his preoccupation
with the Syrian track, while Israeli officials fault the PA's
lack of flexibility and desire to trigger American intervention
in the talks.

Arafat used the occasion to reinforce a deadline of his own - a
declaration of Palestinian statehood by next September, with or
without the concurrence of Israel.  This message came at a
gathering in Gaza on Sunday night of the Fatah Revolutionary
Council, where 132 of Arafat's most loyal followers approved a
resolution adopting the same deadline for a final-status
agreement with Israel as the final date for declaring
independence.  The decision reaffirmed a similar resolution
ratified by the PLO's Central Council two weeks ago.


DRUMBEATS OF WAR

PALESTINIANS INCREASINGLY FAVOR ATTACKING ISRAEL, POLL SHOWS
Copyright   2000 Nando Media Copyright   2000 APonline By Samar
Assad Jerusalem February 13, 2000

Support among Palestinians for attacks against Israel has
increased while trust in the months-old government of Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak has declined, according to a poll
released Sunday.  Support for attacks on Israeli targets rose
from 36 percent in December to 43 percent, according to the poll
conducted by The Center for Palestine Research and Studies, an
independent think tank.  Half were opposed and 7 percent of those
questioned expressed no opinion.  The question did not specify
military or civilian targets.  Palestinian trust in Barak's
government dropped to 16 percent from 18 percent in December,
within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage
points.  Still, that showed a sharp decline from the 29 percent
support Barak had among Palestinians when he assumed office in
July, after defeating the government of Benjamin Netanyahu in May
elections.


PREPARATION FOR WAR

DEFENSE PACT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND UNITED STATES IS IN WORKS Prime
Minister concerned about limits on IDF action By Akiva Eldar
Ha'aretz Correspondent 2/14/00

The United States and Israel are working out an official defense
pact between the two countries within the context of a "peace
package" with Syria and the Palestinian Authority.  The
discussions are being conducted by Prime Minister Ehud Barak's
political adviser Brigadier General (Res.)  Zvi Stauber and U.S.
Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, as well as members of Israel's
National Security Agency, the Defense Ministry and Assistant
Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs Ned Walker, a former
ambassador to Israel.

Barak is hesitant to accept a full-scale pact that would require
Israel and the United States to send troops to each other's aid
in case of an attack on one of the countries.  Barak is also
concerned about sections of a pact that would require Israel to
get advance authorization from the United States for any military
activity against a hostile element, such as the recent operations
in Lebanon.

As a result, the two sides are seeking a narrower definition for
the agreement, in such a manner as to focus on attacks with
weapons of mass destruction and long-range ballistic missiles
against one of the two countries.  The Clinton Administration is
pushing for the agreement, based on the assumption that a defense
pact, which would be part of the overall package of peace
agreements with the Palestinians and Syrians, would widen the
scope of support by the Israeli public for the agreements when
they are brought to a national referendum.


APOSTASY AND ECUMENISM

BLACK PENTECOSTALS TO VATICAN
Religion Today News 2/7/00

Black Pentecostals say they can learn from the Roman Catholic
Church.  Leaders of 27 denominations, members of the Joint
College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops, will travel to
Rome this week to visit the Vatican and perhaps meet with the
pope, the Chicago Tribune said.  The bishops said it is time to
recover some of the ancient traditions practiced by the Catholic
Church.

"I think we can learn from each other," Larry Trotter of the
Sweet Holy Spirit Full Gospel Baptist Church in Chicago said.
"We come with a fervor and fire they may be missing, but they
come with order and structure we may be missing."  The bishops
will attend a three-day seminar at the Pontifical North American
College, a seminary for U.S. Catholics, and will attend a general
audience and a healing Mass with the pope, the Tribune said.
They also might have a short personal visit with the pontiff.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing segments of
Christianity.  Pentecostals believe that God, through the Holy
Spirit, empowers Christians with spiritual gifts, including
prophecy, healing, and speaking in tongues.

"The shock to me was that these Pentecostals -- these
charismatic, tongue-speaking people -- all wanted to go to the
Vatican," J.  Delano Ellis of Cleveland said.  He is a friend of
Cleveland Catholic Bishop Anthony Pilla, who helped arrange the
trip.  "We are part of the body of Christ, and we want to grow
closer to other parts of the body of Christ.  It's time to build
some bridges and tear down some walls," Ellis said.


RISE OF ISLAM

ARABS & ISRAEL 4738: Vatican Shift? 
by Richard H. Shulman 2/4/00

VATICAN APPEASEMENT ENDING?

The Vatican long has supported countries' Muslim majorities
against Christians, especially in Lebanon.  Now the Vatican has
asked France to help get Syrian forces out of Lebanon (Monthly
Digest of News from the Moslem World, 12/99 by Jer.  Inst.  for
W. Defense, p.4). The Syrians are squeezing the Christians out.
It is not as if the Pope prefers Islam.  It is that the Arabs
have threatened their Christian minorities unless the Vatican
abandons their rights in the Arab world.

Does the Vatican finally realize that appeasement of the Muslim
Arabs does not pay?  That the Muslims have a "them or us"
ideology?  If so, then perhaps the Vatican also realizes that its
support for the Arabs against Israel brings nearer the
eradication of all Christian existence in the Mideast.  Likewise,
the Vatican's machinations against Israeli control of Jerusalem
are less likely to result in more Vatican control than in an
oppressive Muslim control.  Israel's current control means
respect for Christian institutions in Jerusalem.

If the Vatican realizes all that, then it and other Christian
organizations should work with the Jewish state in resisting
jihad.  Perhaps Israel can build on the Vatican request of the
French to start rallying the non-Muslim world against jihad, one
way being to keep the Israeli bulwark against jihad intact.


SOCIETAL DECADENCE - As in the Days of Noach

STUDY: 'LIVING IN SIN' NOW THE NORM
United Press International - February 07, 2000 14:17 ANN ARBOR,
Mich., Feb. 7 (UPI)

A University of Michigan study indicates living together without
benefit of marriage is now the norm in the United States.
Cohabitation has gone from involving just 10 percent of
households in 1965 to more than 50 percent in 1994.

BRITISH MPS CUT HOMOSEXUAL AGE OF CONSENT TO 16
By George Jones, Political Editor London Telegraph 2/11/00

Legislation to lower the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16
was approved overwhelmingly by the Commons last night for the
third time in three years.  Two previous attempts to lower the
consent age have been blocked by the Lords.  But the Lords cannot
stop the legislation this time.  The Bill has been introduced
under the Parliament Act procedures, which mean it will become
law automatically in England, Wales and Scotland later this year.

GAY GROUPS SEEK TO LEGALISE SEX IN PUBLIC LAVATORIES
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor London Telegraph 2/11/00

Campaigners pressing for the age of consent for homosexuals to be
reduced to 16 have set out an agenda for future reforms that
would legalise gay sex in saunas, public lavatories and
"cruising" areas.

They have made clear that yesterday's Bill to equalise the ages
of consent for homosexual and heterosexual acts is only the start
of a concerted effort to remove all legislative restrictions upon
homosexual activity and relationships.  A submission to the Home
Office by the organisation OutRage, led by Peter Tatchell, says:
"We do not believe that consensual actions between adults, no
matter how bizarre they might appear to the majority, are any
concern of the law or its agents.  Thus we seek to legitimise
consenting actions in bath-houses and saunas, 'backrooms' in
pubs, and all group sex in private, including sado-masochistic
games."

The submission, to a Home Office review of sex offences, adds:
"We would also like to extend the concept of private to include
public lavatory cubicles and after-dark 'cruising' areas.  Since
recreational sex is a natural activity and popular pursuit, all
laws which seek to control it should be abolished .  .  .  The
whole basis of the current homosexual control laws is moralistic
and based on a largely medieval concept of Christianity which we
believe has no place in a pluralistic democratic society."

OutRage accepts that "abuse of trust" between adults and minors
should be punishable, though "sensitive consideration should be
given to examples of experimentation between those just above and
just below a fixed age of consent".

Activists are determined to remove all discriminatory legislation
that treats homosexual activity as morally different or inferior
to heterosexual liaisons.  They even want common law offences of
"outraging public decency" - which in theory should be
non-discriminatory - abolished.  As well as equal workplace and
tax rights, campaigners also want same-sex couples to be regarded
as next of kin for purposes of pensions, wills, tax, housing and
adoption.

The Government is already considering the extension of the
criminal injuries compensation scheme to pay a homosexual lover
up to oe10,000 compensation for bereavement after a crime in the
same way that a husband or wife would be paid to recognise the
emotional impact of their loss.  The Law Commission has since
recommended that homosexuals should have the right to claim
damages if they were financially dependent on a lover who died
through someone else's negligence.  Financial support need not be
direct, but could include providing a home which is lost as a
result of the death.  At present, only spouses, other relatives
and co-habitees of the opposite sex are entitled.  The law is
increasingly moving towards the recognition of rights for
same-sex couples.

Last year the Lords ruled that a homosexual couple in a stable
relationship could be defined as a family.  Voluntary agencies
and the state are also signing up to the agenda.

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