The exchange of gifts between Israeli and Egyptian Heads of State has a history dating back to Biblical peace treaties between Egyptian Pharaohs and Israelite Kings.
1 Kings 9:15–17 describes such an exchange between King Solomon and an Egyptian Pharaoh (either Siamun or Shishak I in the third quarter of the 10th century B.C.).
“ … Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire, and had slain the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and gave it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer.”
Archaeological artifacts were among the gifts presented to President Anwar Sadat on his recent historic trip to Jerusalem. Three ancient oil flasks were presented by Israeli President Ephraim Katzir to Sadat on November 22, 1977. The small jars were purchased from an Arab antiquity dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem by Ze’ev Yeivin, Deputy Director of the Department of Antiquities. Yeivin could not confirm to Biblical Archaeology Review the site from which the jars originated. They were selected because they dated generally to the Middle Bronze Period IIa, the period of the Patriarchs (ca. 1900–1750 B.C.). The three oil flasks were set on green velvet in a glass-covered olive wood box for the presentation.
Prime Minister Menahem Begin gave Sadat nine miniature oil lamps from the Maccabean period (ca. 150 B.C.). The oil lamps were arranged in a semi-circle on red velvet to look like a Hannukkah candelabrum. The approaching Hannukkah holiday recalled Israel’s historic conflict with the Seleucids and accented Israel’s hopes for peace.
Upon presenting Sadat with the gift, Prime Minister Begin expressed the hope that when Sadat looked at these lamps from time to time, he would remember his friends in Jerusalem.
A third archaeological gift was given to President Sadat by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek. Kollek, whom Sadat had called “the most famous mayor in the world,” escorted the Egyptian president on a tour of the new archaeological parks around the Old City walls (see “Report from Jerusalem,”BAR 03:04). The mayor then presented Sadat with a gift of three antique oil lamps reflecting the city’s sacred status to the three great monotheistic faiths. One lamp had been used by Jews in the first century (Herodian), a second by Christians in the fifth century (Byzantine), and a third by Moslems in the eighth century (Early Arab). The lamps were found in recent archaeological excavations in Jerusalem.
The exchange of gifts between Israeli and Egyptian Heads of State has a history dating back to Biblical peace treaties between Egyptian Pharaohs and Israelite Kings.
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