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Antisemitism

Israel caves on Qumran


By Stan Goodenough
April 15, 2008

Israel's Ministry of Tourism has reportedly just succumbed to pressure from the British Advertising Standards Authority to remove a photo of the Qumran Caves from a travel promotion encouraging Britons to visit Israel.

The caves, famous for the 1940s discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, are not in Israel but are "actually located in the Palestinian territories" the ASA scandalously declared.

As such Israel was misleading the readers of the advertisement.

Interestingly, the main scroll discovered at the site was the oldest known copy of the Jewish biblical book of Isaiah, which thousands of years ago foretold the return of the Jews to this land, including to Qumran - ancient site of a Jewish sect.

A kibbutz located at the site of the caves was founded in the Mandate period, before the existence of any organization or entity known as "the Palestinians." It was only evacuated because of the threat that Arabs would murder its Jews.

At best the site is on disputed territory that has a rich Jewish, and absolutely no "Palestinian," past.

Nonetheless, while The Jerusalem Post said Israel was "forced" to remove the offending photo, according to a report in Ynetnews Monday the Tourism Ministry quickly gave in, replacing the picture with one of the Masada fortress.

One ministry official did slam what was described as the ASA's increasingly anti-Israel attitude. He pointed out that the Palestinian Authority's maps designate all the land of Israel - including pre-1967 Israel - as "Palestine."

Israel watchers chalked down another propaganda success to the Palestinian Arabs.

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