ROBERT FISK'S WORLD: YOU WON'T FIND ANY LESSONS IN UNITY IN TH

[Yervant1]

ROBERT FISK'S WORLD: YOU WON'T FIND ANY LESSONS IN UNITY IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

 

Independent

Saturday, 11 July 2009

UK

 

At last, I have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls. There they were, under their

protective, cool-heated screens, the very words penned on to leather

and papyrus 2,000 years ago, the world's most significant record

of the Old Testament. I guess you've got to see it to believe it. I

can't read Hebrew - let alone ancient Hebrew (or Greek or Aramaic,

the other languages of the scrolls) - but some of the letters are

familiar to me from Arabic.

 

The "seen" (s) of Arabic, and the "meem" (m) are almost the same as

Hebrew and there they were, set down by some ancient who knew, as

we do, only the past and nothing of the future. Most of the texts

are in the Bible; several are not. "May God most high bless you,

may he show you his face and may he open for you," it is written on

the parchments. "For he will honour the pious upon the throne of an

eternal kingdom."

 

The story of the discovery of the scrolls is, of course, well known. An

Arab Bedouin boy, Mohamed el-Dib, found them at Khirbet Qumran in

a cave in what is now the occupied West Bank of Palestine in 1947,

and handed them over to a cobbler turned antiquities dealer called

Khalil Eskander Shahin in Jerusalem; they eventually ended up in

the hands of scholars - mostly American - i n the Jordanian side of

Jerusalem. Then came the 1967 war and the arrival of the Israeli army

in East Jerusalem and... well, you can imagine the rest.

 

Now, I have to say that I looked at these original texts in the Royal

Ontario Museum in Toronto, a tale that was bound to engender a whole

series of questions, not least of which is Canada's softly-softly

approach to anything approaching controversy. At no point in the

exhibition, jointly arranged with the professional (and brilliant)

assistance of the Israel Antiquities Authority, is there any mention,

hem hem, of the West Bank or occupation. Or how the documents found

there came to be in the hands of the Israelis.

 

So cautious are the dear old Canadians - who should by now have

learned that concealing unhappy truths will only create fire and pain

- that they do not even mention that "Kando", the first recipient of

the scrolls, was Armenian. Of course not. Because then they would

have to explain why an Armenian was in Jerusalem, not in western

Turkey. Which would mean that they would have to mention the Armenian

Holocaust of 1915 (one and a half million Armenian civilians murdered

by Ottoman Turks).

 

This would anger Canada's Turkish community, who are holocaust

deniers. And in turn, it would anger the Israel Antiquities Authority,

who do not acknowledge that the Armenian Holocaust ever happened,

there being only one True Holocaust, which i s that of the Jews of

Europe. The Jewish Holocaust is a fact, but the Armenian variety -

a trial run for Hitler's destruction of six million Jews - cannot

be discussed in Canada. Nor indeed in America, where Obama gutlessly

failed even to use the word "genocide" last April.

 

Then we come down to the exhibition itself. Poor old Canadians, they

had to publicise the whole fandango as a form of "unity" - there being

three monotheistic religions, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, geddit? -

but alas, the scrolls are not written in Arabic and the sole gesture

to the Islamic faith is a single 200-year-old illuminated Koran. The

museum bookshop also devotes a small heap of books on Islam to bolster

their claim to "unity". The exhibition, according to the museum's

director, William Thorsell - in a lamentable piece of pseudo prose -

"will launch provocative enlightening inter-faith discussions". Here

I reach for my sick bag.

 

Because the message of most of the videos showing around the exhibition

(this being the age of multitechnical as well as multicultural

wellbeing) make it clear that Judea and Samaria (the West Bank to the

rest of us) is originally Jewish. And so it was, by God. The poor old

Philistines lived on the sea coast. But when I suggested a swap to a

bunch of Israeli settlers some years ago - to be fair, they roared in

good-humoured laughter at my horrible sugg estion that Israel might

be given to the Palestinians in return for the occupied West Bank -

the idea did not commend itself to them. They wanted Tel Aviv and all

of internationally recognised Israel plus the West Bank. (At the time,

they also wanted to keep Gaza, partly on the grounds - according to

one of them - that this was where Jonah was puked up by the whale.)

 

No such claims soil the Ontario exhibition. "Words that Changed

the World" is how the organisers coyly entitle their exhibition, "a

once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these historical treasures". But

up come the spoilsports, namely the Canadian "Coalition Against Israeli

Apartheid", to suggest that the scrolls, originally in the hands of the

Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the Ecole Biblique Francaise,

were "confiscated and illegally removed by Israel" in 1967. The Royal

Ontario Museum, the protesters say, is showing "looted" property

which it has no right to exhibit. The Palestinian Authority itself

has intervened, arguing that the museum is "displaying artefacts

removed from the Palestinian territories".

 

(Let us not, O Reader, mention the Elgin marbles, albeit that the

Brits don't occupy Greece.)

 

So the museum has started to clam up. "We're not granting any

interviews," according to a snotty spokeswoman for this esteemed

institution. I can well see why. The museum claims it has documents

to prove the legality of the exhibiti on. But it won't show them. Nor

will it consult Unesco for its opinion.

 

Plenty of unity there, of course.

 

Needless to say, if the Saudi government were to exhibit its Islamic

treasures in Toronto, I doubt very much if it would mention the large

Jewish community that once lived in Arabia. Any more than a recent

Turkish cultural exhibition at the Royal Academy mentioned the - ahem,

ahem again - contribution of the Armenians to Turkish history. Mind

you, given the fact that the photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls are

infinitely clearer and more decipherable than the originals stared

at by The Independent's Middle East correspondent, I do wonder if

these precious documents really need to be flown around the world.

 

But I guess it's the same old story: seeing is believing. Providing

you're not a Palestinian or an Armenian or anyone interested in

property rights.

 

 

 

[Arpa]

Seems like the Palestinian “pen” is even duller than the Armenian one.

I am amazed that Robert Fisk has not been crucified yet.

Because the message of most of the videos showing around the exhibition

(this being the age of multitechnical as well as multicultural

wellbeing) make it clear that Judea and Samaria (the West Bank to the

rest of us) is originally Jewish. And so it was, by God. The poor old

Philistines lived on the sea coast. But when I suggested a swap to a

bunch of Israeli settlers some years ago - to be fair, they roared in

good-humoured laughter at my horrible sugg estion that Israel might

be given to the Palestinians in return for the occupied West Bank -

the idea did not commend itself to them. They wanted Tel Aviv and all

of internationally recognised Israel plus the West Bank. (At the time,

they also wanted to keep Gaza, partly on the grounds - according to

one of them - that this was where Jonah was puked up by the whale.)

Some time ago it was suggested that the modern Palestinians are one and the same as the biblical Philistines, it is so obvious that even a blind man can see. Why do they call their homeland “falästeen/filisteen” فلستین?

That notion was quashed so readily, not only by them but the entire world to never be mentioned again. I forget what their argument was but it no other than when furks call those … “incidents”, a collateral damage of war.

Who are the master LIARS? Who taught whom how to LIE?

We read in that “book of lies” the so called Ten Commandments, see # 16 below.

Do they even believe in the so called “commandments” plagiarized from Hamurabbi, and actually practice it, like “kill”, “steal” and “lie”? When they believe in that book of lies I will too.

13] Thou shalt not kill.

[14] Thou shalt not commit adultery.

[15] Thou shalt not steal.

[16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

13Մի՛ սպանիր։ 14Մի՛ շնացիր։ 15Մի՛ գողացիր։ 16Քո հարեւանի դէմ սուտ վկայութիւն մի՛ տուր։

Edited July 11, 2009 by ArpA

[Yervant1]

It's all about what not to be the truth, but what percieves to be the truth.

The end justifies the means. Only certain groups are allowed to do it, for the rest it is a crime.

 

[Sabake]

Sorry Robert

 

PS - Maybe you can plan to be Jolly once again since Im going to try to come down to the hangout tomorrow night?