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An Israeli court has issued an injunction ordering the Biblical Archaeology Society, the publisher of BAR, not to distribute or even USC its two-volume set of photographs of the hitherto unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls.
The injunction was issued in a suit filed in the District Court of Jerusalem and instituted by Professor Elisha Qimron of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. In addition to BAS, the defendants are BAR editor Hershel Shanks and the two scholars who prepared the volumes, Professor Robert H. Eisenman of the University of California, Long Beach, and Professor James M. Robinson of Claremont Graduate School and director of the Institute of Antiquity and Christianity.
The injunction, which applies to “Israel and elsewhere”, was issued in an ex parte hearing. No notice of the application for the injunction or of the hearing on the application was given to the defendants. Only the plaintiff was present or represented at the hearing. After the injunction was issued, Qimron’s lawyers taxed a copy to the defendants.
BAS has retained Israeli counsel, who advises that the complaint cost $3,000 just to file. The reason for the high filing fee is that the complaint asks not only for an injunction but for damages of more than $200,000.
Professor Qimron’s complaint is based on the publishers foreword, written by Shanks, to which is appended a Hebrew transcript of the text known as MMT as it appeared in a Polish Journal, The Qumran Chronicle. Qimron claims that he owns the copyright to this transcription.
“I’m sorry Professor Qimron did not get in touch with me before filing this suit,” stated Shanks. “I admire Professor Qimron; he is a fine scholar; we certainly did not intend to hurt him. It’s a shame to have to spend all this money—thousands of dollars on lawyers. It should be spent on translating the scrolls.”
“So much work needs to be done. Why are we wasting our energy fighting lawsuits?” Shanks asked. “Besides, every Dead Sea Scroll scholar has a copy of the transcript of MMT; it has been photocopied hundreds of times from copies provided by Professor Qimron and Professor John Strugnell [the senior editor of the text] to their colleagues and friends. Nearly 30 articles have been written on this text, many with the permission of Qimron and Strugnell and one by Qimron and Strugnell themselves. I don’t really know what Professor Qimron wants from this suit,” Shanks added.
Contribute to the BAS Legal Defense Fund
The Biblical Archaeology Society needs funds to pay its lawyers to fight the Qimron lawsuit in which an Israeli court has issued an injunction against the distribution of our two-volume set of hitherto unpublished Dead Sea Scroll photos.
We have retained counsel in Israel. Their fee already amounts to thousands of dollars. We have also retained international lawyers in Washington, as well as copyright counsel.
We are fighting the ban, but we need your help. Please make your checks payable to BAS and mark them in the lower left corner: “Legal Defense Fund.” Contributions are tax deductible.
We are counting on our loyal subscribers to join us in this fight for intellectual freedom.
Please mail your checks to BAS, 3000 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008.
An Israeli court has issued an injunction ordering the Biblical Archaeology Society, the publisher of BAR, not to distribute or even USC its two-volume set of photographs of the hitherto unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls.
