Who Owns the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Jordan has demanded that Israel hand over some of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. The kingdom claims Israel seized the scrolls illegally from a museum in East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel seized the scrolls and other antiquities from the Palestinian Museum, which was managed by Jordan in east Jerusalem when it occupied this part of the city in 1967,” said Rafea Harahsheh of Jordan’s antiquities department.

The scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. The famous parchments number 900 documents and biblical texts belonging to the Essenes, a breakaway Jewish sect that lived in the craggy hills above the Dead Sea where the scrolls were discovered.

They provide a rare insight into life in the Holy Land and the emergence of early Christian groups in the area.

The Jordanians recently asked the Canadian government to seize some of the scrolls while they were on display in Toronto.

They have also appealed to the United Nations in support of their case.

Israel has refused to discuss handing back the scrolls. Its foreign ministry told the Jerusalem Post, “Jordan’s occupation of the West Bank was never recognized by the international community and the kingdom relinquished all claims on the territories. The scrolls have no relation to Jordan or the Jordanian people.”

Jordan says Israel seized 14 scrolls kept in a museum in the eastern sector of Jerusalem when its army occupied that Jordanian-controlled part of the city in the 1967 war. Israel annexed eastern Jerusalem soon after the war and now says the entire city is its unified, eternal capital. Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem has not been internationally recognized.

”We are very keen on getting them (the scrolls) by reminding different countries of the international accords on cultural wealth they signed,” Maha Khatib, Jordan’s tourism minister, told the AP, citing the 1954 Hague Convention governing the protection of cultural property during armed conflict.

Earlier this month, Canada refused a Jordanian request to stop the scrolls’ return to Israel, after they were displayed at a Toronto museum. It also refused a similar request made by the Palestinian Authority, according to Canadian diplomats.

Khatib said Jordan has given up hope that Israel would directly give back the more than 2,000-year-old scrolls and now hoped Western nations would return them to the Arab kingdom when they host them in exhibitions.

The scrolls include the earliest known version of portions of the Hebrew Bible and have shed important light on Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. Their origin is the subject of an insular, but notoriously heated, academic debate.

They will next be exhibited in Milwaukee, Wisc., starting Jan. 22.

With thanks to Vlad Tepes

MASH Latest Recipient of the Dhimmi Award: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Awarded for their intention to NOT show Islamic Art and pictures of the Prophet Muhammad.

'Jihad' jitters at Met

Is the Met afraid of Mohammed?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic collection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition area slated to open in 2011, The Post has learned.

The museum said the controversial images -- objected to by conservative Muslims who say their religion forbids images of their holy founder -- were "under review."

Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.

"This is typical of the Met -- trying to avoid any controversy," said a source with inside knowledge of the museum.

The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them.

"We have a very small space at the moment in which to display the whole sweep of Islamic art," said spokeswoman Egle Zygas. "They didn't fit the theme of the current installation."

But it's not certain Mohammed will go on display when the Met finishes its $50 million renovation in 2011.

Three years ago, the Met changed its "Primitive Art Galleries" to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas" for the sake of political correctness, said author Michael Gross, author of "Rogues' Gallery," a book about the Met.

Just recently, it decided its highly anticipated "Islamic Galleries" will be given an awkward new name ahead of the 2011 opening.

Visitors will stroll around rooms dedicated to art from "Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia," according to a museum press release.

Islamic art expert Kishwar Rizvi said the Met -- which has one of the world's best Islamic collections -- has nothing to fear from Mohammed.

"Museums shouldn't shy away from showing this in a historical context," said Rizvi, historian of Islamic Art at Yale University.

Rizvi said it was "a shame" the museum dropped the word Islamic from the title.

"It's cumbersome and problematic to base it on nationalistic boundaries," the historian said.

NYPost

Iraq plans to open Saddam Hussein museum

From correspondents in Baghdad, Iraq | April 05

Iraq plans to open a museum filled with toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons, statues, paintings, furniture and artefacts, officials said today.

The items collected and catalogued in the six years since the US-led invasion are being handed back to the Iraqi Government, which will consider a site for what would undoubtedly become a major attraction.

"These possessions are for the Iraqi people," Abdul Zahraa al-Talqani, a tourism and antiquities ministry spokesman,said, adding that a committee will be formed to find a site for the museum.

"We will look for a big building. I think one of the presidential palaces in Baghdad probably will be the place of the museum," said Mr Talqani, noting that clothes, documents and various gifts given to Saddam by foreign leaders are among the possessions.

"This is what was found after the invasion," he added.

Some undisplayed Saddam memorabilia are currently stored in the National Museum in Baghdad, which only reopened in February after having been looted in the days that followed the dictator's ouster.

The US military said the return of "commemorative weapons, paintings, furniture and statues" once belonging to Saddam "signifies the improvement of the security of Iraq".

The possessions, including the weapons, had been stored at a depot in Taji, 35km north of Baghdad, but have been transferred to an Iraqi warehouse at Abu Ghraib, nearer the capital, the statement said.

"The final goal is for these weapons to be displayed at a special museum with Saddam Hussein's artefacts," said Major Franco Nieves.

"They will be displayed for all the people of Iraq, future generations and visitors from all over the world to admire."

Source: The Australian

Yad Vashem to showcase Muslims who saved Jews from Nazis

The Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem.

For the first time, Yad Vashem will inaugurate an exhibition this week on Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

The exhibition, which opens on Thursday, focuses on more than a dozen of the scores of Muslim Albanians previously recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" - the Holocaust center's highest honor - for risking their lives to save Jews during World War II.

The exhibit, titled "BESA: A Code of Honor - Muslim Albanians Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust," is a collection of photographs by the American photographer Norman Gershman of the Albanian Righteous and their families, accompanied by short texts.

Before World War II, only about 200 Jews lived in Albania. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, hundreds of Jews fleeing the Nazis crossed the border from Yugoslavia, Germany, Greece, Austria and Serbia. Read more ...

Source: Jerusalem Post