GLOBALIZATION IS IMPERIALI$M

What's luring Danish companies to Vietnam?

Danish firms are increasing their presence in Vietnam as the country rapidly climbs the value-added ladder and becomes a key hub for tech manufacturing.

There are twice as many Danish companies in Vietnam as there are from 

other Nordic countries combined

Denmark has emerged as a major investor in Vietnam this year, thanks in large part to a $1 billion (€1.01 billion) commitment by Danish toy giant LEGO Group to build its first factory in the Southeast Asian nation — which is planned to be the company's first carbon-neutral plant.  

Since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect in August 2020, trade and investment from Europe has boomed. EU trade with Vietnam surged by 14.8% in 2021 to $63.6 billion.

As well as fast becoming an important hub for high-end manufacturing — with the likes of tech giants Apple and Samsung recently announcing an expansion of their operations in the country — Vietnam is also investing considerably in renewable energies in its push for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Vietnam has the fastest growth of renewable energy production in Southeast Asia.

Denmark's largest energy firm, Orsted, has committed to investing as much as $13.6 billion for a vast 3.9-gigawatt (GW) wind farm zone in Vietnam's Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces. The first projects related to this investment should be online by 2030, a company representative told DW.

Last month, Orsted signed an agreement with a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, a Vietnamese state-owned conglomerate, to collaborate on a number of renewable energy projects.  

The pull of Vietnam

"Denmark and Vietnam have had very close ties and last year we celebrated our 50th year of diplomatic relations, so Vietnam has always been a major investment destination for Danish companies," said Troels Jakobsen, head of the trade department at the Danish embassy in Hanoi. 

"There are twice as many Danish companies in Vietnam as there are from other Nordic countries combined," he pointed out.

He added that more and more companies are aiming to diversify their supply chain "and here Vietnam is very high on the shortlist for Danish companies that wish to expand in Asia."

In early August, the Vietnamese embassy in Denmark published a Vietnamese-language handbook for businesses about the Scandinavian market. Days later, a Danish agri-food delegation visited Vietnam to boost sectoral ties.

The embassy also organized a forum on Vietnam's digital and green transformation this month, while the Vietnam-Denmark Business Forum took place in Copenhagen on September 5.

Vietnam's strong economic performance in recent years has drawn the

 attention of European firms

Building a carbon neutral site

Danish companies will accompany Crown Prince Frederik on a trade visit to Vietnam in early November.

One of Denmark's largest firms to recently expand into Vietnam is LEGO, whose $1 billion factory in the country will be its second in Asia.

A contract was signed last month with a local contractor to build the 160,000-square-meter site in the Binh Duong Province around 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City. The groundbreaking ceremony is expected sometime in the final quarter of this year.

"We wanted a location that offered proximity to our major markets, enabling us to support customers and consumers with speed. We also needed a location where we can recruit a highly qualified workforce to produce the high-quality LEGO products we make," a company spokesperson told DW.

"And not least, it was very important to us to establish a factory where we really can deliver on our sustainability agenda," the spokesperson added, noting that the company will later this month plant 50,000 trees near the factory site.

Offshoring and near-shoring

Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist covering Emerging Asia at French corporate and investment bank Natixis, said that Vietnam's attractiveness as a manufacturing center has markedly improved in recent years.

The country has rapidly climbed the value-added ladder, and is fast becoming a key hub for tech manufacturing.

US tech giant Apple announced last month that it will begin to manufacture its Apple Watch and MacBook products in Vietnam. South Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung has been Vietnam's biggest foreign investor and exporter for a number of years. 

The country also continues to attract inward investment as neighboring China persists with its "zero-COVID" policy and as international companies look to relocate away from China amid Beijing's geopolitical tensions with the West, said Nguyen.

On top of that, Vietnam has a favorable location, being close to China and also other markets, and is improving its infrastructure and connectivity, she added.

Vietnam is currently among the world's top ten producers of solar power, 

generating more than 11% of its electricity needs from solar

Energy is a key factor

Key for European investors is the EVFTA, which cuts almost all tariffs on exports from Vietnam into European markets.

Another attraction for Danish firms is Vietnam's drive towards renewable energy.

Lina Hansen, Denmark's state secretary for trade and global sustainability, noted that energy is a key determining factor for investment in Vietnam, according to her remarks at the recent Vietnam-Denmark Business Forum.

Vietnam is currently among the world's top ten producers of solar power, generating more than 11% of its electricity needs from solar. With a 3,260-kilometer coastline, it is also investing heavily in wind power.

Presently, Vietnam has solar and wind capacity of around 16.6 GW and 0.6 GW, respectively, but the government wants to increase their joint capacity to 20 GW by 2030.

"Vietnam has world-class natural advantages for offshore wind. With 3,000 kilometers of coastline, shallow water depths and high consistent wind speeds, Vietnam offers excellent conditions to develop reliable and cost competitive offshore wind projects," said Sebastian Hald Buhl, country manager of Orsted, which is investing billions of dollars to build wind power facilities in Vietnam.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

VIETNAM'S REMARKABLE ECONOMIC TURNAROUND
The city that never stops
Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), which has a population of 13 million, is the economic center of the country. Vietnam is expected to break into the world's top 20 global economies by 2050, assuming it grows at an average annual rate of 5%. The southeast Asian country is currently ranked 32nd, with its GDP currently expanding by just under 7%.
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INTER-IMPERIALIST RIVALRIES

Japan ramps up aid to Africa to weaken China's grip on continent

Tokyo has announced an ambitious multibillion-dollar program of economic assistance to Africa, in a bid to counter Beijing's growing economic and political influence.

The Tokyo International Conference on African Development was held in Tunisia this year

Japan is ramping up its aid and economic assistance to African nations, with Tokyo recently promising $30 billion (€30.24 billion) to help develop the continent over the next three years. 

The financial commitment was unveiled at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which was hosted by the Japanese government in Tunisia over two days in late August.

First organized in 1993, TICAD has traditionally been held in Japan but this year moved to the North African country due to concerns about the COVID pandemic.  

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered the opening speech from Tokyo, where he was recovering from a bout of the virus, emphasizing to delegates that Japan intends to use its wealth to invest in Africa's human capital and foster high-quality and sustainable development across the continent.  

Even though Kishida did not comment on China or Russia, it is clear that Tokyo's latest economic assistance is designed to push back against growing Chinese and Russian influence in the region.  

How is China affecting Japan's Africa policy?

In recent years, Japanese diplomats in African nations have been busy warning their host governments of the potential pitfalls of accepting what appears on the surface to be generous economic assistance from Beijing.

At the TICAD conference, Japan promised $30 billion to help develop Africa over the next three years

Critics say that the Chinese aid on offer too often takes the form of huge loans for grand infrastructure projects, including commercial ports, strategic airfields, railways, bridges and highways. They argue that when the recipient nations fall behind in their debt repayments, state-run Chinese companies could be quick to step in to take over control of the assets. 

Japan and other nations are particularly concerned about strategically-located facilities with potential dual uses coming under Beijing's control, such as the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka. The government in Colombo borrowed $1 billion from China 20 years ago to build the facility.

But when the project became economically unviable and Sri Lanka could not repay the loan, it agreed to give China a controlling equity stake in the port and a 99-year lease for operating it.

However, Beijing rejects accusations it is pursuing such "debt-trap diplomacy," and alleges that it's a narrative promoted by some in the West to tarnish China's global image.

In August, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, slammed the Chinese debt trap claims, saying that Western officials and media are seeking to drive a wedge between China and other developing nations by leveling such allegations, state-run tabloid the Global Times reported.

As Beijing tries to boost its trade and investment ties with Africa, pledging $40 billion in financing to the continent in 2021, Tokyo is increasingly worried about China's increasing sway in the region.

"The biggest reason behind Japan's aid is obviously China," said Akitoshi Miyashita, a professor of international relations at Tokyo International University. "Kishida is very concerned that Japan — and other developed nations — are falling behind Beijing when it comes to appealing to governments in Africa." 

There is similar concern about Russia's influence in Africa as well. "Russia is courting China, India and a number of countries in Africa to express their support for its actions in Ukraine, so clearly there is a strong political motivation for Japan to do more in Africa," Miyashita pointed out. 

Why is Japan deeply concerned?

Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo's International Christian University, concurred that Japan is "deeply concerned" about China's growing influence in Africa.

But he stressed that the concern was partly driven by its own trade worries. 

"China has been extremely proactive in the Republic of the Congo and other countries with large deposits of the rare earth minerals that are critical to modern technology," he said.

"Japan is working hard to make sure that China does not obtain a monopoly on those resources, which would cause serious problems for Japanese companies."

Tokyo's aim is to create a broad-based coalition of nations that share its calls for a rules-based international order, free and open ocean trading routes and a commitment to joint development.

Japan fears China does not share the same goals and wants to reshape the international order in a way that suits Beijing's interests.

"China is becoming very powerful and politically influential and they use their overseas investments and assistance to further that ambition," said Haruko Noguchi, a professor of health economics at Waseda University. "But Japan thinks and acts very differently." 

What's the difference between Chinese and Japanese aid?

Noguchi has served as an adviser to the Japanese government on aid to African countries, including to schools in Burkina Faso.

"The program there was to create a greater community in schools, to involve parents and other people in these villages, and we were able to determine that this helped children's health and academic outcomes," she said.

"Empowerment has a very positive impact on children's well-being." 

It is this sort of assistance that Japan is likely to focus its efforts on, she said, rather than the construction of airports and port infrastructure.  

"We see the future of Africa in the empowerment of its people and the development of their human capital," she said. "And yes, that might mean that Japanese companies miss out on huge construction projects, but I hope that in the future, a child who has benefited from our aid might rise to a leadership role in these countries. And that is when Japanese aid will pay off."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

China scraps tariffs and steps up the

charm offensive in Africa

China has removed tariffs on 98% of goods imported from nine of Africa's poorest countries. The move benefits China's image, but has little economic impact; experts say.



China wants to increase the import of agricultural products from Africa

China has removed tariffs on 98% of taxable items originating from nine of Africa's least-developed nations.

The new tariff policy, which came into force on September 1, applies to agricultural and mineral imports from the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, and Togo.

Several Asian countries have also been included in the scheme.

It follows Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement at the China-Africa summit in November 2021 that steps would be taken to increase the import of agricultural products from Africa.

Xi said at the time that the aim was to boost these imports from the continent to $300 (€302 billion) over the next three years, eventually reaching $300 billion a year by 2035.

Africa, which still primarily exports raw materials toChina, only accounts for a small part of China's total imports.

In 2020, food and agriculture sales to China from African countries reached $161 billion, making up 2.6% of China's total imports.
African nations keep accumulating debt

Mozambican economist Joao Mosca from the NGO Rural Environment Observatory (OMR) believes the new tariff scheme will have "practically no effect on Mozambique's economy."

He went on to explain that his country still relies on imported foodstuffs and will continue to do so for a very long time, with no capacity to export in a meaningful way.

China is Mozambique's principal individual creditor and its third-most important trading partner. But trade is largely a one-way street, to the detriment of Mozambique's overall balance of payments. The elimination of trade tariffs will not help reduce Maputo's deficits or ease its debt, explained Mosca.

But Beijing has shown a growing interest in Mozambique's commodities. Recently, China partnered with South Korea for joint natural gas exploration in the Rovuma Basin in Cabo Delgado province, which is now set to start production in 2024.

Observers see the agreement, which was signed in August, as a sign that China may want to enter the international race for Mozambican gas at full tilt.
China needs Africa's commodities

"China has become very dependent on African energy and minerals, including cobalt and coal, which are needed for high technology," said Chenshen Yen, an expert in African politics at Taiwan's National Chengchi University.

"I believe that this measure will also help China acquire more raw materials and make it easier for African minerals to enter China," he added.

China has shown increased interest in Mozambique's natural gas

Harry Verhoeven, a senior researcher at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told DW that scrapping tariffs on mineral exports from Africa to China will do little to further encourage already massive flows from the continent to East Asia.

"They will, in most cases, just make it cheaper for Chinese importers to do so," he said.

Verhoeven does see a potential gain for the poorest African countries when it comes to manufactured goods, however.

"Some evidence suggests that China's lowering of tariffs has encouraged a diversification of exports from African states," he said.

Africa's agriculture has economic potential

A bet on agriculture could benefit both sides in future trade relations. China is, after all, the world's biggest food importer and the agricultural sector is the biggest employer and driver of economic activity on the African continent. 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land is in Africa.

China has been criticized for the debts caused by its infrastructure projects in Africa

"In a very long-term perspective, China is interested in reserving land for food production in the entire African Indian Ocean area, from Mozambique to the Horn of Africa," researcher Mosca said.

With a growing population to feed and a plan to focus on high-tech industries — as well as finding new markets for its products — China has a genuine interest in Africa's development.
China as an alternative choice

Mosca relayed a story, however, in which a former Chinese president told a Mozambican prime minister that Beijing "is set on industrializing Africa in the next 100 years." That includes exporting highly polluting industries — for which China is now under permanent scrutiny, the expert warned.

In the short term, though, the measures announced by Beijing must be seen in the context of geopolitical positioning.

This is especially true in light of the war in Ukraine, which has placed many African states in a position of conflicting loyalties. This is something that China is seeking to capitalize on, Mosca believes.

"China is saying: 'Look, there is an alternative to your age-old, traditional dependency on European countries and the US," he said.

William Young contributed to this article.

SIERRA LEONE: BLACK JOHNSON BEACH TO BECOME FISHING HARBOR UNDER CHINA DEAL

Construction or conservation?

The government of Sierra Leone is planning to build a fishing harbor off the village of Black Johnson. Some 252 acres of land in Whale Bay has been earmarked for the project. But residents and environmentalists are up in arms: They fear eviction and pollution in the area where fish breed.

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Edited by: Ineke Mules

DW RECOMMENDS

China's winning approach to African investment

Many African decision-makers see their relationships with Europe as recipients of aid, rather than as equal partners on the ground, according to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. DW examines why this gives China an edge.

WWW LINKS
China boosts tariff-free access for African countries

UK PM rules out windfall tax to fund energy price freeze

Issued on: 07/09/2022 -

Liz Truss on Wednesday faced her first parliamentary grilling as British Prime Minister, ruling out a windfall tax to fund any freeze on energy bills to offset huge rises in the cost of gas and electricity. Truss, who formally took over from Boris Johnson on Tuesday, said she would spell out her plans on Thursday for an economic support package to forestall a growing crisis in the months ahead. FRANCE 24's Bénédicte Paviot reports from London.

New UK PM Truss wants more oil and gas extraction from the North Sea



Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 
Video by: FRANCE 24

Britain's new prime minister, Liz Truss, said on Wednesday she wanted to see more extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea and more investment in nuclear power. Speaking at her first prime minister's question time in parliament, Truss said she wanted to find ways to address rising energy costs for businesses.

• No 10 hinted that the ban on fracking will be lifted this week. During the leadership contest Truss said: “I support exploring fracking in parts of the United Kingdom where that can be done”. Asked if the fracking ban would be lifted this week, the press secretary would not comment on the announcement tomorrow, but he said Truss made her views clear during the campaing. This is from LBC’s Ben Kentish.

 

PMQs - verdict from Twitter commentariat

13:59

And this is what other journalists and commentors are saying about PMQs. Mostly people were just glad to hear the two main party leaders have a proper argument about policy.

From my colleague Rafael Behr on PMQs.

From Global’s Lewis Goodall

From my colleague Nesrine Malik

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From Global’s Jon Sopel

From my colleague John Crace

From Sky’s Sophy Ridge

From the Sun’s Harry Cole

From the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From the FT’s Robert Shrimsley

PMQs - snap verdict

13:50

Every former prime minister says that taking PMQs is the most scary ordeal of the week and, even after 10 years in post, people like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair regarded it as one of the ultimate challenges of the job – an encounter when a few wrong words could spell disaster. For any new prime minister, the first question is, are they up to it? And Liz Truss clearly is. She looked like a prime minister, she performed reasonably well, and she even managed a decent joke (on Labour leaders and north London – see 12.20pm.) It was not a triumph, but it was not a catastrophe either, and on day one that is a bonus.

Truss also marks a very welcome change from Boris Johnson, in that (for the most part) she was willing to answer questions, and engage in an argument about policy and ideas. This, of course, is what is meant to happen. But for the last three years we have been governed by a prime minister much more interested in politics as performance and entertainment, and so it is refreshing to tilt back to ideas.

But that is where the whole encounter was less positive for Truss. She won the Conservative leadership contest on a low-tax, small-state agenda that put her well to the right of any Tory leader for a generation. Truss has always been a libertarian (it’s why she joined the Liberal Democrats at university), but during the summer it was never entirely clear to what extent she was just pandering to her party’s cruder, Thatcherite instincts. But now we know; it’s worse than that (to quote an old Westminster joke) – she really does believe it.

Starmer exposed this clearly with questions that illuminated what may become the key dividing line in British politics. Truss has already shifted on to Labour territory by conceding the need for a price cap of some sort on energy bills. But while Labour is proposing to fund this through a windfall tax, Truss is resisting this and today she dug in firmly on this point, declaring categorically that a windfall tax would be wrong. Starmer said this was prioritising the interests of an industry making £170bn in profits and that as a result she was going for “more borrowing than is needed”, with taxpayers paying the price for years to come.

Maybe you can win a general election on this sort of purist, ideological Laffer curve worship? But it seems extremely unlikely. Tories like Rishi Sunak believe the claim that tax cuts alone will always promote growth is nonsense, and even figures in the energy industry are finding it hard to justify their excessive profits. Starmer did not put on a particularly flashy performance, but he sounded much closer to where the public opinion is on these issues and ultimately that is what matters.

Truss also had no convincing answer to the question posed to her by several MPs: how could people trust her to sort out the nation’s problems when she had been in government for the past 10 years? (Boris Johnson did not have this problem, because he was out of parliament for most of the David Cameron era, and he resigned from Theresa May’s government.) Starmer summed this all up in his final question. He told Truss:

The prime minister claims to be breaking orthodoxy but the reality is she’s reheating George Osborne’s failed corporation tax plans - protecting oil and gas profits and forcing working people to pay the bill.

She’s the fourth Tory prime minister in six years - the face at the top may change but the story remains the same.

There’s nothing new about the Tory fantasy of trickle-down economics, nothing new about this Tory prime minister who nodded through every decision that got us into this mess and now says how terrible it is, and can’t she see there’s nothing new about a Tory prime minister who when asked: who pays? says: ‘It’s you, the working people of Britain’?”

In response Truss said there was “nothing new about a Labour leader who is calling for more tax rises” and that Starmer was just offering “the same old tax and spend”. It demonstrated that she can think on her feet, but that won’t help much if voters conclude that what Starmer is saying makes more sense.

READ ON HERE

Liz Truss accused of seeking to evade scrutiny over announcement of energy bills plan – live (msn.com)

How Bellingcat Became Russia's 'Biggest Nightmare'

By Aurelie CARABIN
09/07/22 

Christo Grozev brought journalist know-how to the Bellingcat team

Digital investigators from the Bellingcat group have spent eight years exposing the lies of the powerful and gathering evidence of their crimes - work that has a grave human cost, the organisation's chief told AFP in an interview.

Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev said he and his colleagues received regular threats but he was driven to continue by "adrenalin" and "the feeling you can do something that law enforcement does not do".

The investigative group has been closely associated with uncovering misdeeds by Russian agents across Europe, including intelligence involvement in the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

"When you get stopped in the street by Russian citizens, telling you thank you for what you are doing once a day, I think that it is enough to continue," he said.

During a meeting in Paris earlier this week, he described the organisation as the "Kremlin's biggest nightmare" though he stressed to AFP that Russia was not the main focus of their work.

"Russia today produces a lot of government crime and that's why a lot of our investigations are focused on Russia," he said.

"But we equally try to pay attention to bad actors from wherever they come."

He cites investigations into the Syrian war, EU police agency Europol and others focused on Greece, Turkey, Hungary and the far right in the United States and Europe.

Bellingcat was founded in July 2014 by a British blogger, Eliot Higgins, along with a band of internet "nerds", said Grozev, who joined later and brought a wealth of journalism experience from his career in the Bulgarian media.

They used information freely available to the public -- anything from satellite images to telephone directories -- to piece together evidence of wrongdoing.

Their work on the downing of Air Malaysia flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 -- which killed 298 people and sparked global outrage -- won plaudits around the world and brought the group to the attention of the Kremlin.

The investigators pieced together photos, videos and public documents that supported the theory that the plane was shot down by a Russian missile from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Since then, the group has identified Russian agents responsible for poisoning opposition figure Alexei Navalny and other dissidents, exposed alleged war crimes in Ukraine and helped uncover many more scandals.

One of its main focuses right now is the war in Ukraine, where it has a two-track approach.

Grozev said one approach uses journalistic methods to debunk false information, the other is more judicial, gathering evidence of war crimes for eventual use in the courts.

The Netherlands-based platform, which takes its name from a fable in which mice join forces to hang a bell around a cat's neck, has rarely been out of the Kremlin's firing line.

Russia recently described it as a security threat and deemed it "undesirable".

One of the main lines of attack has been to accuse Bellingcat of being funded by Western governments or NGOs, particularly the US National Endowment for Democracy.

Grozev said in its early years the group took some money from American NGOs for training, but later decided to stop.

He said it had not taken any money from governments since last year and relied instead on smaller funders.

"Most of our funders are individuals who spend 100 euros to 5,000 euros," he said.

Beyond the financial constraints, Grozev pointed to the difficult legal environment.

"International law is handicapped because it assumes that governments look out for their citizens," said Grozev.

Even a tribunal like the International Criminal Court, which seeks to hold individuals to account rather than countries, has long been hobbled by disagreements over its remit and powers of investigation.

And national governments are hamstrung by the idea of national sovereignty, so if a poisoning happens on Russian territory, only Russia can investigate.


It is precisely in this legal blackhole that Bellingcat finds the greatest need.

"We investigate generally bad actors, governments who commit crimes, because we think nobody else is investigating them," said Grozev.

"There are no tribunals, no law enforcement agencies that investigate governments."

Israel acquires papyrus with Hebrew inscription from Montana


The Associated Press
Ilan Ben Zion
Publishing date: Sep 07, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has acquired a previously unknown ancient papyrus bearing a Hebrew inscription dated to around 2,700 years ago that had long been in possession of a Montana resident, the country’s antiquities authority said Wednesday.

The scrap of papyrus — scarcely larger than a postage stamp with four lines of angular script — is one of just a few from the region in the Late Iron Age, archaeologists said. The Israel Antiquities Authority said it authenticated its age using radiocarbon dating, which corresponded with the age of the text’s writing style.

Joe Uziel, director of the Judean desert scrolls unit, said the matching radiocarbon date and paleographic style makes him “very certain” that it is not a modern forgery.

The papyrus, which bears the Biblical name Ishmael, was likely looted sometime in the last century from a cave in the Judean Desert, he said.

Its provenance and journey from the desert to Montana six decades ago and now to Jerusalem remain nebulous.

The antiquities authority declined to name the Montana resident but said the man’s mother obtained the artifact during a visit to Jordanian-occupied east Jerusalem in 1965 and brought it to the United States.

Numerous scroll fragments from the arid region near the Dead Sea that have emerged on the antiquities market in recent years, including several at Washington’s Museum of the Bible, have proven to be forgeries.

The antiquities authority showed the papyrus to the press at its labs in Jerusalem alongside two other ancient Hebrew fragments it holds — one found in a cave near the Dead Sea in the 1950s and a second that was seized from the antiquities black market in 2016 and believed to have been looted from a cave.

Eitan Klein, head of the Israeli antiquities’ theft prevention unit, said the Montana man’s mother may have either purchased the object from Khalil Iskander Shahin — a Bethlehem-based antiquities dealer better known as “Kando,” who traded in many of the originally discovered Dead Sea Scrolls — or may have been given the papyrus by the curator of the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

How Shahin or the curator, both of whom have since died, obtained the papyrus remains uncertain.

The unidentified Montana man inherited the papyrus after his mother’s death. An Israeli academic noticed a photo of this previously undocumented text in a colleague’s unpublished papers and notified Klein, who tracked down the owner, the antiquities authority said.

Klein said the man was invited to Jerusalem in 2019 and the sides came to an unspecified “arrangement” whereby the papyrus was given to the Israeli authorities.

Israel unveils 'extremely rare' Iron Age papyrus note

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - AFP

An Israel Antiquities Authority conservator views under a magnifying glass the papyrus fragment at its conservation lab in Jerusalem 

MENAHEM KAHANA AFP

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel's Antiquities Authority displayed Wednesday a rare papyrus note in ancient Hebrew dating back 2,700 years, recently brought back to Jerusalem after its chance discovery in the United States.

The letter fragment, written in the Palaeo-Hebrew used during the First Temple era, constitutes four lines beginning "To Ishmael send", with the rest of the words incomplete.

"We don’t know exactly what was being sent and to where," said Joe Uziel, director of the antiquities authority's Judaean Desert scrolls unit.

In the Iron Age, Hebrews used clay fragments to scrawl short notes and animal hide for scriptures, with papyrus reserved for official correspondence, said Eitan Klein, deputy director of the authority's antiquities theft prevention unit.

Papyruses left in the dry climate of the Judaean desert could have survived the ages, but there were only two other papyruses from the First Temple era known to researchers before the latest discovery, Klein said.#photo1

"This papyrus is unique, extremely rare," he said.

Ahituv was surprised to see in the book's draft a picture of the "To Ishmael" papyrus, which he had not been familiar with.

He contacted Klein, and with the help of Yardeni's daughter, managed to locate the US academic who had connected Yardeni to the owner of the fragment -- a man in Montana.

The owner had inherited the papyrus from his late mother, who in 1965 purchased or received it as a gift from Joseph Saad, curator of the then Palestine Archaeological Museum.

Saad had obtained it from legendary Bethlehem antiquities dealer Halil Iskander Kandu, who Klein said had most likely bought it from Bedouin who found it in a Judaean Desert cave.

Back in the United States, the woman had framed the papyrus below a picture of Saad and Kandu, and hung it in her home.#photo2

Klein invited the Montanan to visit Israel in 2019, showing him the Antiquities Authority's facilities to persuade him that the rare artefact would be preserved best there.

"He was convinced, and at the end of his visit, left the papyrus with us," Klein said, without providing further details on the man or process.

The authenticity and age of the artefact were determined using palaeographic and carbon-14 dating, Uziel said, noting researchers' apprehension about removing the papyrus from the back of the frame.

"She used adhesive glue and glued it and then framed it," he said. "Removing it will actually cause further damage to the papyrus."

To Uziel, any discovery of an artefact "is really a high," but "when we come to the written word, it's another level."

"We actually can make a much closer connection to the people living in the past," he said.

© 2022 AFP