Should the Israel Museum Take the Dayan Collection Off Display?

A recent article documents in excruciating detail what everyone has long known: Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed hero of the Six-Day War, was an archaeological looter.

After the 1967 war, Dayan had the whole of Sinai and the West Bank at his disposal. He used soldiers under his command to help him dig. He used army helicopters and trucks to help him transport some of the loot.

In an article entitled “A Very General Archaeologist—Moshe Dayan and Israeli Archaeology,” published in The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (vol. 4, 2003), Raz Kletter, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, says that he has documented 35 sites “where evidence of robbing and illegal digging by Dayan exists.”