cultural wars for the past - in palestine

“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”

                                                                                                                                                                       George Orwell


It is the perception of the past that guides the direction of the future in the minds of the masses. And managing that Perception is the  main agenda of Archaeology and of National Museums dedicated to creating the myths that are used to bind people into nations. And to keep them bound.  

The political use and misuse of archaeology in the middle east is leading to cultural wars that are probably more important than the physical wars which draw most of the  attention in the hugely contested war zones of the Middle East. 

And it is these cultural wars that will eventually decide the eventual fate of the peoples of that land.

Museum exhibit becomes front in Israeli-Palestinian struggle

By Joel Greenberg, Thursday, February 14, 3:22 AM

JERUSALEM — A major exhibit at Israel’s national museum that is devoted to Herod the Great, the Roman-era king of Judea, has become the latest front in a struggle between Israelis and Palestinians over cultural heritage.
The show is billed as the most ambitious and expensive archaeological exhibition put on by the Israel Museum outside of its permanent collections, and its centerpiece is a partial reconstruction of what is believed to be the king’s tomb at Herodium, a hilltop palace-fortress south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.




Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archeologist with Emek Shaveh, a group that focuses on the role of archaeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the Israel Museum’s spotlight on Herodium served efforts by the government and Jewish settlers to appropriate West Bank sites as part of Israel’s national heritage.
“The museum can grant legitimacy to the occupation this way, by presenting this as part of Israeli and Jewish heritage,” he said. “The message is: This past is ours.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/museum-exhibit-becomes-front-in-israeli-palestinian-struggle/2013/02/13/d



Moshe Dayan is the former Israeli defense minister who, using the strength of the Israeli army, pillaged countless artifacts — dating from the Ottoman era to the time before Christ — from Gaza, in an effort to erase Palestinian history.

Salim Mubayed, a researcher of Palestinian heritage, told Al-Monitor in a meeting in his office: “Gaza is considered a open-air museum for the world’s civilizations. In this city heathens, then Christians and Muslims developed and enriched the city with antiquities. Gaza was called a treasure, but the excavation of its antiquities was not consistent with its historical significance. Its antiquities were not properly excavated, and the biggest part was hidden.”

It is to be noted that the first scientific research in Gaza was conducted in 1931 by British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, who discovered many building foundations and pieces of gold jewelry in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood of the city of Gaza.

He explained that under the British Mandate, there was little awareness of the value of antiquities, which were traded. There was only one museum, called the Palestine Archaeological Museum, now the Rockefeller Museum in east Jerusalem. He noted that under Egyptian administration, attention was paid to all aspects of life except for Palestinian antiquities and heritage, which were unknown in Gaza.

Mubayed added that Israel entered and occupied Gaza for few months in 1956, and the first thing that was done was to steal antiquities. After 1967, these robberies became a policy adopted by the occupation. The most prominent antiquities were stolen by Dayan, who took thousands of pieces, including four Pharaonic clay coffins from ​​Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.

Regarding the budgets set by the two governments in Gaza and the West Bank, most of the money is spent on security, without much concern for preserving Palestinian history or its many archaeological sites. On the other hand, Israel is creating its own history, on stolen treasures. 

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/02/archaeological-pillaging-gaza.html#ixzz2Ksb94NTR
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/02/archaeological-pillaging-gaza.html#ixzz2KsamgOQJ