Dead Sea Scrolls Chutzpah
Cognitive dissonance is a universal human idiosyncrasy. In her Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Who Owns the Dead Sea Scrolls?” Charlotte Allen opens our eyes to cognitive dissonance as the willful dishonesty of the Palestinian Authority and those who espouse their maximalist cause, the dismantling of the State of Israel.
Ms. Allen reports that the Palestine Authority (and the Kingdom of Jordan), claim ownership of the Dead Sea Scrolls because it considers these artifacts, all written by Jews of the intertestamental era (225 BCE to 40 CE) in Aramaic and Hebrew, were buried in their territory. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority vociferously and ceaselessly makes the case that there never was a Jewish presence in this land. Their historically disreputable efforts in UNESCO and other UN agencies are notorious in this respect. To Palestinian fabulists, BDS militants and neo-anti-colonialist sympathizers, Jerusalem and the lands of the Old Testament were never the ancient states of the Jews.
Since these accurately dated documents were written and hidden some two thousand years ago, could the Palestinian claim to ownership of the Dead Sea Scrolls be based on ancient extra-terrestrials jokesters who planted them? If ETs were not responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, can it be true that tangible evidence of Jewish presence in this ancient land belies the Palestinian Authority’s abuse of history? Can it be logical that they claim ownership of Jewish patrimony found in the Judean hills while denying that there never was a Jewish presence in the land? With this hypocrisy, the Palestinian Authority offers the latest, hottest manifestation of chutzpah.