Jordan demands return of Dead Sea Scrolls 'seized' by Israel

[redqueen]

Jordan has asked the UN to force Israel to hand over Dead Sea Scrolls, which it says Israel stole.

Jordan has asked the United Nations to force Israel to hand over a significant portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of some 900 ancient religious texts unearthed in the 1940s and 1950s, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

The Jordanian government has also asked the Canadian government to impound the 2,000-year-old documents, currently on display at a museum in Toronto, according to reports in the Canadian press.

Jordan cited international law to request that Canada take possession of the documents until the dispute is resolved.

Jordan has accused Israel of seizing the scrolls from a museum in east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.

(more at link)

This ought to be interesting. I wonder what authorities in Canada will decide.

[HeresyLives]

1. Canada won't do anything about it.

Not only is our current PM totally gung-ho on Israel, but seizing such things would mean no one would ever trust us with a museum display again.

[humblebum]

2. Since they are documents important to Jewish history and

written by Jews, Jordan should be told to get lost.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Won't Jordan accept a xeroxed copy?

[darkstar3]

4. They're also important to Jordanian history.

They were written there, lost there, found there, and stolen from there. Both parties have a vested interest in both the content and possession of these scrolls.

[Igel]

15. They were?

They were found NW of the Dead Sea. In what's now the West Bank. Some where found when the British were still there; the rest under Jordanian occupation of the West Bank.

They were stolen from that traditional Jordanian soil called "East Jerusalem." If Jordan can claim them on that basis, then they can claim all the government land in the West Bank. Screw the Palestinians, the Jordanians annexed the entire W Bank and E. Jerusalem, which is more than Israel's done so far.

If they're from Qumran, then they were written in the West Bank. If they're from Jerusalem, then they're still not from trans-Jordan.

There's also not just a lot of cultural continuity between the DSS and anything in Jordan.

I don't see where you get "they were written there, lost there, found there, and stolen from there." In fact, the only way to make the utterance true is to erase "there" and remove any deixis referring to Jordan from it: "They were written, lost, found, and stolen."

[Recursion]

5. They're also remarkably important to Christian and Muslim history

And, what's probably more important, they belong to Jordan.

[humblebum]

6. since they were written by Jews before there even was a Jordan

i think it is quite debatable as to who the owner is.

[Igel]

16. They were also written and lost before there was Islam.

Whatever projecting back into the past is claimed posteriori.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. They don't belong to Jordan.

[Recursion]

10. Wow, what a persuasive response

:eyes:

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Almost as persuasive as your statement.

Since you made the claim, care to provide evidence; y'know..proof?

[Recursion]

12. Well, if you RTFA...

...the scrolls were in East Jerusalem and Israel seized them during the war. Napoleon had to give up the stuff he seized too.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. And if you are at all familiar with history...

...you would know that they were seized from an illegal occupying force.

[humblebum]

14. Isn't it odd that East Jerusalem is the sight of the ancient Jewish temple?

Proving that the area was Jewish long before the Muslims ever even existed. Who owns what?
What is the difference between the Scrolls and American Indian artifacts, which have been determined to belong to the Indians even though the items were found on places currently belonging to non-native Americans?

[Recursion]

17. Ummm.. they should go back to the Native Americans

Seems like a no-brainer to me

[On the Road]

7. Legally They Would Seem to Belong to Jordan

but this is probably the only controversy like this where I feel some sympathy for the Israelis.

It is true that the Dead Sea scrolls are important to Christian and Muslim history, but the record of stewardship by Jordan and the church is not very good. Under Pere deVaux, the scrolls were kept from outside scholarly examination while the church insisted on extremely questionable interpretations of their dating and authorship.

(Just to stir the pot a little. Don't know how much the controlling government really influenced things.)

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Canada will not seize Dead Sea Scrolls

TORONTO
, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The Canadian government said it will not seize the Dead Sea scrolls on display in Toronto despite a request from the Jordanian government.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said the Canadian government refused Jordan's request to seize the historical scrolls that were part of a display at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum that concluded Sunday.

The Canadian government said in a statement that "differences regarding ownership of the Dead Sea scrolls should be addressed by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene as a third party."

Jordanian officials, along with Palestinian authorities, wanted Canada to seize the scrolls until final ownership of the documents could be determined.

Israeli officials have opposed Jordan's claim on the 16 scrolls. Jordan maintains Israel illegally obtained the scrolls from Jordan during the Six-Day War of 1967.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/01/04/Canada-will-not-seize-Dead-Sea-Scrolls/UPI-57411262623821

[madrchsod]

18. those kids of abraham still can`t get along after all these years...

oh well maybe they sort things out in another thousand years or so....

[rd_kent]

19. .