Israel anger at papal award

BY GEORGINA BREWER IN THE WAKE OF THE controversial papal honour bestowed last month on former Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, Israel said last week that it is "shocked" by the news and is to ask the Vatican for "clarification" on the award.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Rafi Gamzou said, in a statement, that the Israeli government would be asking for reasons why Pope John Paul should honour a man whom the Jewish state accuses of trying to conceal a Nazi past.
Ambassador to the Vatican Shmuel Hadas was in Israel and would seek the clarification on his return to Rome, the spokesman said.
"It seems that those who bestowed this honour preferred to forget Waldhelm's record in the Second World War. His service as UN Secretary-General cannot hide this past."
Waldheim has denied allegations that he was a Na0 officer who took part in the deportation of Jews in the Balkans during the war.
Waldheim was made a papal knight of the Ordine Piano for his 1972-1980 service as United Nations Secretary General in a ceremony at the Vatican Embassy in Vienna.
An Austrian government study, conducted by a panel of international historians, found no proof that the then Austrian President had committed war crimes but concluded that Waldheim certainly knew of atrocities against Jews and did nothing to stop them.