[Bcma-l] CMA Clip Serv: Palestinians ask Canada to seize Dead Sea Scrolls
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:27:39 -0700
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<b>Palestinians ask Canada to seize Dead Sea Scrolls</b></span></font>
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Blake Lambert, The National (UAE), Thursday, July 23, 2009</span></font>
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A new exhibit featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls at Canada’s largest
museum has ignited Palestinian claims of cultural theft.</span></font>
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The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), in partnership with the Israel
Antiquities Authority, is displaying 17 of the scrolls, including four
for the first time, until Jan 3.</span></font>
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The scrolls contain the earliest written sources for the Old Testament
as well as prayers, biblical commentary and religious laws that served
as the foundations for Judaism and Christianity.</span></font>
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Titled Words that Changed the World, the collection includes
fragments of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Daniel and Isaiah and
the War Scroll, one of the first found.</span></font>
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The facts regarding the discovery of the scrolls in 11 caves north-west
of the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley’s Wadi Qumran between 1947
and 1956 are not in dispute by Palestinians.</span></font>
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The problem for Palestinian Authority officials, who contacted ROM
executives in April, is that the exhibition contains artefacts illegally
acquired by Israel when it annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.</span><=
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The PA’s archaeological department said it was important for
Canadian institutions to be responsible and act in accordance with
their country’s obligations.</span></font>
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“I’m not saying those scrolls are not Jewish and Christian in =
nature,”
said Issam al Ahmed, the executive director of Palestine House, an
educational and cultural organisation in the Toronto area. “But they=
were discovered prior to the Israeli occupation and they were
exhibited in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem in Palestine.”=
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After the 1967 war, the Israelis moved the scrolls to the Shrine of the
Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.</span></font>
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Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a Montreal-based
advocacy group, argues that ROM’s partnership with the Israeli body
violates Canada’s obligations under the conventions of Unesco, the
UN body that helps to conserve mankind’s heritage, regarding the
protection of cultural property.</span></font>
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According to its interpretation, Canada cannot import cultural
property from an occupied territory and must, if possible, take that
property into custody and return it to the competent authorities at the
end of hostilities.</span></font>
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The Palestinian Authority’s objection surprised the ROM.</span></fon=
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Its officials said the Israel Antiquities Authority had previously lent
the Dead Sea Scrolls to 20 major cultural institutions, including the
Vatican Apostolic Library, the Library of Congress in Washington,
DC, the New York Public Library and the Canadian Museum of
Civilization.</span></font>
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But Thomas Woodley, the director of Canadians for Justice and Peace
in the Middle East, said it was probably just a matter of time before
the Palestinian Authority caught up with the issue.</span></font>
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“If the Palestinian state is ever going to be established, tourism i=
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going to be an important part of the economy,” he said. “By cu=
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heritage laws of today, the Palestinians would be caretakers.”</span=
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Mr Woodley suggested the question of custodianship is symbolic of a
much larger problem: there are active archaeological sites managed
by Israel in the West Bank.</span></font>
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His group and Palestine House had called for the cancellation of the
Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition before its launch on June 27 and met with
ROM executives.</span></font>
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Mr al Ahmed said the museum offered to include the Palestinian
perspective in its literature on the scrolls, which never happened.
Palestine House then rejected the ROM’s offer for a cultural corner =
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exhibit Palestinian artefacts because of the Israel Antiquities
Authority’s participation.</span></font>
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Meanwhile, Mr Woodley’s group produced a report suggesting
modifications to the exhibition’s history, the inclusion of a map,
pointing out “glaring” issues in the copy of the materials and=
providing names of speakers to reflect the Palestinian narrative. In
particular, the report pointed out that Palestine and Palestinians were</s=
pan></font>
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“conspicuously absent” from the ROM’s narrative and Jude=
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Israeli term, is the reference for the southern West Bank.</span></font>
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Notwithstanding the claims of theft, the ROM said it “remained
satisfied that the exhibition is lawful”.</span></font>
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As for concerns of bias, William Thorsell, the chief executive and
director of ROM, wrote to the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the
Middle East that its proposed materials would inject “contemporary
political content” into the project.</span></font>
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“This exhibition creates the ground for a constructive conversation
among people of various faiths about shared roots and values,” wrote=
Mr Thorsell.</span></font>
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That view certainly appeals to Toronto’s Jewish community.</span></f=
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“It verifies a Jewish presence in Israel that dates back thousands o=
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communications for the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto.</span></fo=
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He described the exhibit as a gift to the people of this city, which they
should visit in large numbers.</span></font>
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To the ROM’s delight the exhibition has been a success.</span></font=
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More than 18,000 people visited the Dead Sea Scrolls in the first nine
days, exceeding attendance projections by 52 per cent.</span></font>
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Nevertheless, protests have taken place in front of the museum.</span></fo=
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Palestine House called for a boycott, but Mr al Ahmed said it is hard
to measure if people are listening.</span></font>
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Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East is now examining
the issue to see if it can sue the Canadian government to fulfil its
obligations under international law.</span></font>
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“What’s the point of international law? It’s to prevent =
the theft of
cultural heritage,” Mr Woodley said. “Are we respecting the
principle? I don’t think the ROM is.”</span></font>
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