An exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls slated to open this summer at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has drawn criticism from Palestinian officials, who say the coming show is a violation of international law, The Toronto Star reported. The show, “Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World,” is scheduled to open at the museum on June 27 and would display scrolls discovered in caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. But in a letter sent to Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, and to the museum, Palestinian officials say that the scrolls were obtained illegally by Israel when it annexed East Jerusalem after the war in 1967. “The exhibition would entail exhibiting or displaying artifacts removed from the Palestinian territories,” wrote Hamdan Taha, the director-general of the archaeological department in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, according to The Star. William Thorsell, the museum’s chief executive, told The Star, “I’m quite certain the scrolls fall within the parameters of the law.”

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