Posted on 07/21/23
| News Source: Arutz-7
Former US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will return antiquities belonging to Israel that had been kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate for the past several months, Haaretz reported.
Trump said in a statement delivered to the Wall Street Journal that a representative of the Israel Antiquities Authority had given him the artifacts with the authority's full cooperation and that he intended to send them back to Israel.
Among the antiquities are ancient ceramic oil lamps that are part of Israel's national treasures collection. They were sent to the US in 2019 with the approval of the then-director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson, on the condition that they be returned within weeks, Haaretz reported.
Before Trump's announcement, senior Israeli figures had been seeking unsuccessfully to get the objects back to Israel, the report said.
The archeological items were shipped from Israel to the United States for a Hanukkah event attended by Trump, then in office, and Saul Fox, a major Jewish-American donor to the Antiquities Authority, according to the newspaper. Over the years, Fox has donated to the establishment of a national center for antique coins, as well as to the creation of an archeological garden at the Knesset.
Before Trump's announcement, senior Israeli figures had been seeking unsuccessfully to get the objects back to Israel, the report said.
The archeological items were shipped from Israel to the United States for a Hanukkah event attended by Trump, then in office, and Saul Fox, a major Jewish-American donor to the Antiquities Authority, according to the newspaper. Over the years, Fox has donated to the establishment of a national center for antique coins, as well as to the creation of an archeological garden at the Knesset.
According to sources in Israel and abroad, F