ISRAEL: The pope's gifts--taking stock

Pope Benedict XVI was presented with a great many gifts during his visit to the Holy Land. Careful thought had gone into each to ensure the token carried the desired message: religious, political, national and other.

Here's a (partial) list of what the pope left Israel and the West Bank with: 

• Nano-Bible: the whole Bible --all 1.2 million letters and 300,000 words-- engraved on a silicon chip the size of a grain of sand by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
• Painting: "Camp Synagogue," by Felix Nussbaum, a Jewish artist who perished in Auschwitz.
• Ancient lamp: a 1,500-year-old menorah, a rare antique lamp, gift of the Jewish National Fund, which had worked for weeks to prepare the site of the Mass at Mt. Precipice near Nazareth.  
• Covenant to save lives: Magen David Adom, Israel's largest medical organization, conceived a covenant addressing the highest religious value of all, saving lives, from an interfaith perspective. Written and signed by distinguished Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders.
• Ancient map: a framed copy of Heinrich Bunting's famous 16th century depiction of Jerusalem as the center of the clover leaf-shaped Old World, presented by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat upon welcoming Benedict to Jerusalem.
• The Gospel of Luke: a volume of 65 poster-size pages written in ornate Arabic script by a Bethlehem artist of Islamic calligraphy. The Bethlehem mayor commissioned the Muslim Yasser Abu Saymeh for the project, a message of religious coexistence that took two months to complete. 

  Bronze sculpture (right): Jerusalem artist Aharon Bezalel's sculpture designed of 10 bronze figures welded together, the tallest three engraved with a cross, moon and menorah in a sign of religious coexistence. This completes a circle for the artist, who had met with Pope John Paul II and presented him with a sculpture honoring the memory of the Holocaust. It is on display in the Vatican. 

A few of the gifts combined ancient and modern, some were an interfaith statement, and others yet hinted at political issues, such as the sash that was given to him when he visited a West Bank refugee camp; it was embroidered with a key--a symbol of Palestinian refugees' desire to return to their homes, now in Israel.

Pope Benedict brought some gifts with him too, such as the ventilator for a children's hospital and a mosaic representation of the birth of Jesus he presented to Bethlehem. And, he left a note in the Western Wall.

But some people wanted the pope to return some stuff too.

This week, two right-wing activists had filed a request for a stay of exit against the pope and three senior members of his delegation. Complete with a report of theft ("on an unknown date" ), citing Israel's two chief rabbis as witnesses, they demanded the court to order the pope to return artifacts stolen from the Jewish temple by Titus, who ransacked Jerusalem and the temple nearly 2,000 years ago and brought them to Rome, where the petitioners believe they remain, hidden somewhere under the Vatican.

Plenty of people have a touch of the Templars or have watched too many Indiana Jones movies. Not these two. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel, two ultra-nationalist serial petitioners, were just doing what they do best: mounting high-publicity protests of issues they take to be anti-Jewish or anti-Israel, including gay pride parades and papal visits. They would have known their petition would be kicked out of court; the pope is a head of state and as such enjoys diplomatic immunity.

Cockamamie as the petition was, the issue isn't a new one. Besides being a great mystery that has intrigued writers, adventurers and dreamers, it has also produced academic and historic debate. Most seem to agree the spoils did make it to Rome intact in AD 71, as later depicted on one of the panels on the Arch of Titus in Rome that shows the Romans making off with the treasures. 

Many believe that the plundered temple artifacts remain in Rome today. But in his book God's Gold, British historian Sean Kingsley wrote that the treasures were not in the Vatican, or even in Rome, for that matter. Kingsley believes they were spirited away from Rome when the Vandals (the original ones) came to town and made it back to the Holy Land, where he thinks he knows where they are: the Monastery of St. Theodosius, near Bethlehem.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem. 

Top: Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat greets Benedict XVI, presents him with gift. Credit: Government Press Office.

Middle: Sculpture by Aharon Bezalel, presented to the pope by Israel's tourism minister. Publicity picture.

Bottom: Arch of Titus panel showing the spoils of the temple. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

[Earl Shugerman]

I live in Israel. Have any of you ever been to this region? There are twenty-two Arab League members, two major political factions in The West Bank and Gaza plus thirty-three Israeli political palrties. One and one-half million Palesitians live in pre-1967 Israel. Do you really believe that sterotypes, slogans, and outside pressure will solve all these differences? You can not make peace with Cuba! America is still a nation with serious racial problems! Solve your problems first, then you can claim the right to change the world.
Earl - Israel

[rezasantorini]

George Washington was not aware of the FACT that there are less than 15 Million Jews in the world, when there are billions of Christians and as many Muslims.

Israel needs the US or Judaism will perish, followed by all other religions other than Islam.

[Harry Tomlin]

The ongoing conflicts in the middle east have endured for as long as we have recorded history.All of these conflicts are based on friction between different religions. Most of these religions are based on the Bible. I wrote a book about the many impossibilities, misconceptions, ignorance and blatant lies recorded in the Bible. You can check it out at:
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheGospelTruth-ARealityCheck.html

[George Washington]

George Washington on Israel

"A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification." ~George Washington Farewell Address

"The nation which indulges toward another habitual hatred or habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interests." ~ George Washington

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." ~ Thomas Jefferson