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Israeli Culture Minister Seeks Return of Ancient Hebrew Inscription Taken from Jerusalem by the Ottomans
(Times of Israel) Ilan Ben Zion - Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev used a trip to Turkey on Wednesday to offer Gaziantep mayor Fatma Sahin a trade: Two elephants for an ancient inscription from Jerusalem, currently housed in a Turkish museum, that is considered one of the most important ancient Hebrew inscriptions in existence. Sahin, a politician from the ruling AKP party, had spoken of her zoo's elephant problem: it has just one. Regev told her aides: "We'll make a deal. We'll give them the elephants, and they'll give us the inscription of Hezekiah." Regev was referring to the Siloam Inscription, a 2,700-year-old ancient Hebrew text that provides concrete historical support for the Biblical account of the construction of a tunnel which brought water from the Pool of Siloam to the City of David, below the southern edge of the Temple Mount, during the reign of King Hezekiah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said he offered in 1998 to trade Turkish antiquities in Israeli museums for the inscription, but was turned down. Turkey holds two other ancient inscriptions at the Istanbul museum.