ELHANAN MILLER: IRAQ TO U.S.:RETURN OUR ANCIENT TORAHS AND TALMUDS (????!!!!)BEYOND CHUTZPAH
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iraqi-government-to-the-united-states-return-our-torah-scrolls/
Iraq to the United States: Give us back our Torahs and Talmuds Baghdad officials claim the US took away thousands of ancient Babylonian artifacts in 2006
By Elhanan Miller
The United States has taken hold of 90 percent of Iraq’s national
archives, and is refusing to return thousands of precious Jewish
documents and manuscripts, Iraqi government officials are claiming.
According to Iraq’s Ministry of Culture, in 2006, American authorities
received some 3,000 ancient documents and 1,700 artifacts dating back
to the Babylonian era through an agreement with Iraq’s Antiquities
Authority for the purpose of restoration. However, the officials now
say, the US is still “holding the artifacts prisoner” in what they
term “a cultural Guantanamo.”
The officials told the Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya this week
that the artifacts include the oldest manuscript of the Talmud, the
cornerstone of Jewish oral law compiled in Babylon in the sixth
century CE, as well as the oldest manuscript of the Torah.
Unnamed sources claimed to Al-Arabiya that Israel is behind the
“theft,” as it stands to gain the most by the confiscation of the
artifacts, which were stored in Iraq’s Central Intelligence building
for their historic value. Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmad
bin Helli recently accused Israel of involvement in what he dubbed
“the largest act of plundering and theft of Iraq’s historic documents
and treasures,” the station reported.
Saad Bashir Iskandar, director general of the books and documents
department of the Iraqi ministry, said the Americans insisted on
removing the artifacts from Iraq. The items were stored in no less
than 48,000 boxes and containers, he said.
“Our ongoing negotiations with the Americans always run up against
barriers of procrastination,” Taher Hamoud, director general of the
Culture Ministry told Al-Arabiya. He added that the documents
contained within the archive in question are 70% in Hebrew, 25% in
Arabic and 5% in other languages.
A spokeswoman for Israel’s Antiquities Authority told The Times of
Israel she had no information on the Iraqi allegations.
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