by Yori Yalon
Israel Antiquities Authority Director Israel Hasson: "For years, our most important cultural and heritage assets have been dug up and robbed ... in the name of greed" • Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev vows to increase punishments for looters.
An Israel Antiquities
Authority worker excavates in a Judean Desert cave
|
Photo credit: Yuli Schwartz / IAA  |
Israeli authorities are stepping up the fight
to save the country's as yet unrecovered ancient scrolls from the hands
of antiquities robbers.
The Israel Antiquities Authority, the Heritage
Project by the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry, and Culture and Sport
Minister Miri Regev are promoting a national program of archaeological
excavations in the caves of the Judean Desert to save the ancient
scrolls cached there, the earliest extant manuscripts written in Hebrew.
"For years, our most important cultural and
heritage assets have been dug up and robbed in the Judean Desert in the
name of greed," said Israel Antiquities Authority Director Israel
Hasson. "The goal of the national program we're promoting is to excavate
and discover all the scrolls that remain in the caves once and for all,
so they can be saved and preserved by the state."
And Regev said, "The antiquities looters are
looting the history of the Land of Israel. We can't allow that. The
scrolls are the most exciting, important testimony to the existence of
the people of Israel in the Land of Israel 2,000 years ago, and they
were discovered close to the time of the [Jews'] return to Zion and the
establishment of the state.
"We have an obligation to protect these unique
treasures, which belong to the Jewish people and the world as a whole.
I'll work to increase punishments for antiquities looters."
Yori Yalon
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=33893
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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