Israeli Panel Shifts Stand on Scrolls : Research: Agency reverses condemnation of Huntington Library’s decision to allow all scholars access to Dead Sea documents.

JERUSALEM —  The Israeli agency in charge of the Dead Sea Scrolls, reversing its condemnation of the Huntington Library’s decision to open its reproductions to all scholars, agreed “in principle” Wednesday to an open-access policy.

But the Israelis defended the right of designated scholars who have been working on deciphering the ancient texts over a 40-year-period to publish their work without hindrance.

In an attempt to iron out details on the preservation and publication of the 2,000-year-old trove of 800 documents, the Antiquities Authority invited institutions holding photographic copies--including the Huntington in San Marino--to attend a December meeting in Israel.

The authority operates the Shrine of the Book and the Rockefeller museums, both repositories of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments. In a statement released in Jerusalem and at the Huntington, the authority said it “agrees in principle to facilitate free access to photographs of the scrolls.”

“The Antiquities Authority has caved in,” William A. Moffett, director of the Huntington Library, said. “This is the big break. . . . They are in retreat with dignity.”

“We think the government of Israel embraces intellectual freedom and we are delighted to hear that,” Moffett added at a press conference at the Huntington.

He said other libraries with restricted access to scroll copies “will now be able to open their collections” to all scholars. “In effect, the logjam has been broken.” Moffett said the library is evaluating whether to attend the meeting planned for December.

Until Wednesday, the Antiquities Authority had claimed that copies of their original photos were made only as a safety precaution, not for distribution.

Most of the scrolls have been deciphered, but the slow pace of translating and analyzing the remaining 20% has drawn international criticism, especially in the past two years. Israeli officials claim the snail’s pace has been solved by an infusion of younger scholars to do the work.

“I think we will have to take a more open approach,” said Emanuel Tov, who is in charge of translation and publication of the studies under way in Israel.

Amir Drori, the director of the Antiquities Authority, added: “Obviously, there is a new situation. We have to discuss it, just like we discussed the question of slow scholarship.”

Despite signals that the authority would go to court to stop the Huntington, Drori said he is not thinking of a legal battle.

Other institutions holding copies of the scrolls include the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and the Oxford University Qumran Center in England. They are all being invited to the December meeting.

In Drori’s mind, the short and explosive battle over the scrolls has already taken on the biblical themes of betrayal and covetousness, plus a dash of anti-Semitism. He insists that distributing the contents of the scrolls will break faith not only with the agreements that resulted in making copies, but also with the scholars who have been laboring to turn out a definitive interpretation of the remaining fragments.

“It is not right that someone who has been working diligently should suddenly be preempted,” said Drori.

He wondered aloud why for so many years, when the job was truly moving slowly, hardly a complaint was heard. “It seems to have something to do with the fact that Israel and Jews are in control,” he said.

The motives, he said without elaboration, have to do with personal ambitions of scholars who have not been given access to the scrolls.

He rejected charges that he was trying to maintain a monopoly on the text. “You cannot talk about a monopoly when there are 40 scholars at work,” he said, pointing out that for 20 years, when the texts were under Jordanian control, only seven scholars were given access to the documents. “We are going to expand the numbers. The talk of monopoly is nonsense,” he said heatedly.

The scrolls were found in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. They came into Israel’s hands when it took the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War. The texts give a glimpse into Jewish life when Rome ruled the region and into groups that may have formed the foundations of Christianity.

Williams reported from Jerusalem and Chandler from Los Angeles.