Report: Jordan asks Canada to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Globe and Mail’s Patrick Martin (the paper’s former Middle East Correspondent), is reporting that Jordan is asking the Canadian government to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Toronto Canada.
The Royal Ontario Museum is currently displaying seven of them as part of an exhibit on the scrolls. The last day of the exhibit is January 3.
“Summoning the Canadian chargé d'affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls,” said Martin.
It appears highly unlikely that this request will get anywhere. In the same story a spokesperson for the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 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.”
Since the scrolls arrival in Toronto last summer, they have been no stranger to controversy.
Heritage Key reported on a street protest that took place outside the museum a few months back. Videos of it have since appeared on Youtube. Also the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority demanded last spring that the museum’s exhibition be cancelled.
The question of who should handle the Dead Sea Scrolls is a tough one. The site of Qumran is actually in the West Bank. When the scrolls were discovered in the 1940’s and 1950’s Jordan controlled the territory. Many of the fragile parchments were stored in the Rockefellar Museum in East Jerusalem.
In the 1967 war the Israelis gained control of the whole of Jerusalem. They then assumed custody of the scrolls.
To make things even more complicated the Palestinian Authority formed a government in the West Bank during the 1990’s. It’s an entity that is independent of Jordan. They too have a claim on the scrolls.
So the question of who should control these ancient writings is a messy one. However, Israel has given no signal so far that it is willing to cede control of the scrolls to Jordan or the Palestinians.
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I actually just blogged about this myself.
I think Canadian law would agree with the Israeli position that the scrolls at the ROM are not an export. An export usually means a permanent and commercial transaction has occurred. I also think, the law aside, that there is much to be said about the good faith behind such a gesture when the scrolls clearly pertain to Jewish culture and history. Isn't it logical, that insofar as possible, the people to whom an artifact most closely relates should be the guardian of that artifact?
Those are good points. One of the arguments for Israel retaining control of the scrolls is that the writers certainly had a Jewish background.
Still there are problems with this situation.
-The contents of the scroll are also important for Christianity and Islam. There's a good article on the BBC about the importance of Abraham (Ibrahim) in Islam.
-Also Qumran is in the West Bank - a territory that has never been recognized as being part of Israel.
Personally I think that it would be good for the concerned parties to meet and reach an agreement over the curation of the scrolls. However, I don't think that kind of dicussion can happen until there is a wide-ranging peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
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