Anti-Collecting Antisemitism

An Iraqi historian and archeologist claimed Wednesday that an “international Jewish mafia” was plotting to loot the Middle East’s most treasured antiquities. He was joined by Walid al-Assad, the director of Syria’s Palmyra Museum. They said the so-called Jewish conspiracy is part of an effort to destroy the region’s Arab heritage. The two discussed the “Zionist mafia” in a two-and-a-half-minute video posted on Wednesday on YouTube. “The Jews are always looking for antiquities -- especially Middle Eastern ones, and particularly Iraqi ones – in order to prove that the Torah is true,” Ali al-Nashmi, Iraqi historian and archeologist, said in the video. “And so they extort, steal, and establish mafia gangs.” Walid al-Assad said the Jews want “to erase the Arab origins of the antiquities” and “destroy the city [of Palmyra] and wipe it off the face of the earth.” Al-Assad is the son of antiquities scholar Khaled Assad, who was beheaded in late August by the Islamic State group in the city.

Morgan Winsor, 'Iraqi Historian, Archaeologist And Syrian Museum Director Claim Jews Want To Destroy Arab Heritage', International Business Times, September 30 2015.