U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs

The U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs recently returned to the Palestinian Authority a rare Assyrian ceremonial spoon almost 3,000 years old. On being looted from a site near the Palestinian village of Khirbet al-Koum, the Iron Age spoon ended up in the hands of a Manhattan antiquities collector. Contributing writer John Mason, writes about this story, including Israeli reporting on the return of the looted artifact, which differed sharply from outside reports. One such story was titled, “US spoon-feeds the Palestinian Authority a looted artifact.” Other Israeli press reports suggested that there is no proof of the object’s Palestinian cultural character.