Jordan demands return of Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel

Claiming that the Israelis took away from Jordan the Dead Sea Scrolls during the 1967 Six-Day war, Rafea Harahsheh, Jordan’s antiquities department official, said the government has initiated a move in the United Nations to get the ancient texts back from the Jewish state.

“Israel seized the scrolls and other antiquities from the Palestinian Museum, which was managed by Jordan, in East Jerusalem when it occupied this part of the city in 1967,” Mr. Harahsheh said.

“The government has legal documents that prove Jordan owns the scrolls.”

The scrolls, which is also called the Qumran manuscripts, are of great historical significance to biblical scholars as it ascribes the earliest origins of Judaism and Christianity.

It will be remembered that East Jerusalem was captured from Jordan during the Six-Day war and Israel later took possession of it, a move not recognized by the international community.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH GIGANTIC WALL IN JERUSALEM

A PRE-HERODIAN RELIC

Archaeologists digging inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the old city of East Jerusalem unearthed what seems to be a gigantic fortification based from the standpoint of the structure’s dimensions, the thickness of its walls and the size of the stones that were incorporated in its construction.

The discovered section is 24 meters (79 feet) long, standing at 8 meters (26 feet) high, made up of huge cut boulders and deemed to be a 3,700-year-old wall. It is theorized that it could be part of a massive wall construction protecting a fortified passage.

The appearance of the wall continues to be a marvel to the excavation’s director, Ronny Reich who said, “To build straight walls up 8 meters … I don’t know how to do it today without mechanical equipment. I don’t think that any engineer today without electrical power [could] do it.”

Reich, who is a professor at the University of Haifa, together with Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority came out with a joint statement confirming that the find is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David, predating the Herodian period.