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Friday, April 16, 2010 - 1:49 PM
Apart from looting
antiquities on his own, or with army comrades, professional robbers or
personal friends, Dayan also received and gave antiquities. In many
cases the lines
between gift, acquisition or looting is blurred. During earlier years of
his
�hobby,� Dayan received considerable help from army comrades and
friends. This
was an improvised net based on personal ties and appreciation or
sometimes on
dependency of lower ranks on their commander. Dayan also used personnel
and
equipment of the army for his private hobby (Dalumi 1991:9; Slater
1991:327).
Ariel (1986:9) claimed that Dayan even ordered a training exercise with
soldiers practicing entrenching to be located at a known antiquity-site,
so
that once the exercise was over he could come and look for antiquities.
Other
IDF commanders began to follow Dayan in collecting and robbing
antiquities
(Ariel 1986:9; see Dayan�s own words, 1976:258).
Yael Dayan, his
daughter and �protector� and according to whom the defining
characteristics of
her father were �pragmatism, flexibility, extreme cautiousness, and-
ho!- lack
of selfish ambition for power� (1990:6),�
rather naively, give examples of this situation in her diary of
the 1967
war in Sinai, without any awareness of the ethical problems involved.
She notes
that Dayan received help of generals as well as of simple soldiers. On
the
brink of war, Yael met an army bulldozer-driver named Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire: �there is
no time
for archaeology, said Amiram, who used to go to my father often whenever
he dug
and found something which could be a grave or an ancient dwelling�
(Dayan Y.
1967:18). Later, General Yekutiel Adam (�Kuti�) collected flint
arrowheads with
Yael (Dayan Y. 1967:35), giving them to Dayan (Dayan Y. 1967:39-41; cf.
Dayan
1976:129).� Kuti found a Roman-period
jar in El-Arish and told Yael: �here�s something for your father!... I
still
did not have time to search the area, but maybe he will like this one�
(Dayan,
Y. 1967:136).
�
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