Dead Sea Scrolls Theft Alleged

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32020, 21 June 1969, Page 16

Dead Sea Scrolls Theft Alleged

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CAIRO, June 19.

Arab archaeologists have accused Israel of stealing the historic Dead Sea Scrolls discovered several years ago in the Jordan Valley-

Antiquities experts from Syria, Jordan and Lebanon are meeting to discuss Israel’s alleged violation or theft of monuments from Arab territories occupied by Israel during the June war of 1967. Dr Nasser El-Asad, the Arab league representative at the meeting said the Dead Sea Scrolls were considered to.be the oldest scripts about the Bible.

Dr El-Asad, a Jordanian, said that the scrolls had been kept in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem and were exhibited in the Jordanian pavilion at the New York World Fair in 1965. They were “looted” by the Israelis in June, 1967, he said. Dr El-Asad said that the crown of the Virgin Mary was stolen from the Church of the Nativity after the 1967 war. When it was returned, precious stones and golden

parts of the crown were missing. Mr Adnan El-Bunni, the Syrian delegate, accused Israel of removing relics of Roman tombs in the occupied Golan Heights. At their opening session on Saturday, Arab archaeologists approved an agenda calling for a joint approach to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and other organisations to ban Israel from carrying out excavations in occupied Arab land. A spokesman for the meeting said a detailed statement supported by photographs would be issued later proving that Israel was guilty of stealing or desecrating relics in occupied territory.