How I felt listening to NPR’s report on Dead Sea Scrolls Thursday
NPR did a breathless story Thursday on an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a space called Discovery Times Square– an exhibit mounted in partnership with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, an Israeli governmental authority. But reporter Margot Adler didn’t tell you that.
Adler: … you can roam past artifacts from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, some never shown before. Statues, pottery, jewelry, Roman Hellenistic and objects from ancient Israel, the first and second temple periods.
I don’t know that that’s properly described as “ancient Israel.” These artifacts are from all over lands ruled by many different kingdoms. Qumram, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, is today in the Occupied West Bank, what we now call Palestine.
Adler: [Curator] Risa Levitt Kohn says there are 350 active excavations going on in Israel at any time
Again, I don’t think these excavations are going on in Israel. The Israeli Antiquities Authority — with whom Levitt Kohn works closely — lists many excavations underway in occupied territories, including the Golan, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
Adler: and one purpose of the exhibit is to help people appreciate the ancient world.
Huh. Is that really the purpose of the exhibit? Somehow I doubt it.
P.S. I intend sympathy for the goose with this post. I find force-feeding of these animals a despicable practice.
The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art recently opened a new gallery showcasing artifacts from Arab Lands (As they put it).
http://blog.metmuseum.org/newgalleries2011/en/
While it may not be related to NPR’s story or to the timing of their so-called report, it is an interesting coincidence.
Still, Israeli propaganda has long used questionable and cherry-picked archeology to assert Israel’s legitimacy. So, the timing could be of no special significance.
I feel like the goose every time i listen to NPR, read the Times, turn on the TV……. we are all the goose….im expecting something really funny from mooser on this one, oh boy…. :)
My spouse dragged me to her big box Pentecostal church last night for a viewing of The Exodus Decoded. I was the only one in the audience who thought the whole thing was an exercise in rationalizing the expansion of Israeli hegemony. If fears of war could be augured by an aching liver, then the association by these religious nuts with the divine right of Israelis to rule over the Middle East is an epidemic of hepatitis C.
Shortly after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, they came under Israeli control and dissapeared from public view for decades. I think Israel used that inexcuseably selfish secrecy to remove any and all references to Palestinians.. Why the heck else would Israel have kept them so secret for so long?
The image was particularly powerful. I know it is more of an editorial device than a journalistic device, but I think you should use symbolic images more often in your posts wherever appropriate (maybe I’m biased, I’m a visual artist after all).