JERUSALEM —The cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has halted the construction of a mosque in Nazareth near the landmark Basilica of the Annunciation, where tradition holds that the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would bear Jesus.
The decision was prompted by “stiff pressure from the Vatican and a united front of Christian factions in the Holy Land,” The New York Times reported March 2. The decision, recommended by a special Israeli commission, reverses previous approvals of the mosque under Israeli governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.
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