Israeli Scholar Bares His Fangs—Again!

As part of its campaign in the 1980s and early 1990s to obtain release of the unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls, the Biblical Archaeology Society (publisher of BAR) reprinted from a Polish journal an unauthorized copy of the then-secret Dead Sea Scroll text known as MMT as reconstructed by Harvard’s John Strugnell and Elisha Qimron (above, left) of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In 1992 Qimron sued BAS for copyright violation in the Jerusalem District Court and won.^a The Israel Supreme court affirmed. The lawsuit cost BAS approximately $100,000. In addition to Qimron’s recovery of about $48,000, BAS was required to pay its own attorney and, under the Israeli system, Qimron’s attorney as well, in addition to other litigation expenses.