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"The exhibition would entail exhibiting or displaying artifacts removed from the Palestinian territories," said Hamdan Taha, director-general of the archaeological department in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, reported the Star on Thursday.
"I think it is important that Canadian institutions would be responsible and act in accordance with Canada's obligations," Taha wrote in the letter to Harper.
The museum plans a six-month showcase of 16 of the 900 manuscripts from the Dead Sea.
The scrolls, some of which are as old as the third century BC, have shed light on the earliest origins of Judaism and Christianity and are considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time.
The first fragments were discovered in arid caves along the shores of the Dead Sea by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947.
In the letter, signed by senior Palestinian government officials, the objectors argue the texts were acquired illegally after Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.
"I'm just hearing about this issue," said ROM head William Thorsell on Thursday, according to the Star. "I do understand the Palestinians are making an issue of the ownership. But I'm quite certain the scrolls fall within the parameters of the law."
Pnina Shor, head of the artifacts treatment and conservation department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, maintains that the Jewish state is the rightful custodian of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"As such, we have a right to exhibit them and to conserve them," he insisted, the Star said.
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"I think it is important that Canadian institutions would be responsible and act in accordance with Canada's obligations," Taha wrote in the letter to Harper.
The museum plans a six-month showcase of 16 of the 900 manuscripts from the Dead Sea.
The scrolls, some of which are as old as the third century BC, have shed light on the earliest origins of Judaism and Christianity and are considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time.
The first fragments were discovered in arid caves along the shores of the Dead Sea by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947.
In the letter, signed by senior Palestinian government officials, the objectors argue the texts were acquired illegally after Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.
"I'm just hearing about this issue," said ROM head William Thorsell on Thursday, according to the Star. "I do understand the Palestinians are making an issue of the ownership. But I'm quite certain the scrolls fall within the parameters of the law."
Pnina Shor, head of the artifacts treatment and conservation department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, maintains that the Jewish state is the rightful custodian of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"As such, we have a right to exhibit them and to conserve them," he insisted, the Star said.
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