Today, Saturday, the Israeli newspaper Maariv published a photo that it said was taken of former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who stole Egyptian antiquities from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in July 1969.

The Maariv newspaper said that the photo documents Diane’s stealing of antiquities from the Serabit el-Khadem area in Sinai (northeast).

In the picture, Dayan - who took over the Ministry of Defense between 1967-1974 - and a number of soldiers were transporting bags containing looted antiquities from the Egyptian archaeological site, according to the same source.

Eido Desczyk, a journalist for Maariv newspaper, said that he witnessed the aforementioned theft, when he was a soldier serving in the oil fields in Abu Rudeis, in South Sinai.

He added that one day, he and his colleagues received an order to go to Serabit El-Khadem, an ancient Pharaonic temple, to secure Defense Minister Dayan, during his tour of the region.

He added that the soldiers were transported in military vehicles to their destination, and as soon as they arrived, they found a Dayan helicopter that had landed in the place, indicating that the Israeli Defense Minister was not waiting for insurance, and perhaps he did not know that we were coming, and he and his friend, an antiquities expert, made a tour that was not military. It is an archaeological one.

The Israeli pilots placed bags on the plane, which Dayan ordered them to remove from the site, according to Descentcik, who sat with his fellow soldiers watching in astonishment what was happening.

Descentcik finished the reserve service and returned home. He told his father, Aryeh, who was then the chief editor of Maariv, about what he saw in Serabit al-Khadim, stressing the need to publish what happened so that the Israelis know what their defense minister is doing.

Dissenchik says that his father refused to publish at the time, and told him, "What you tell me does not surprise me, and any story about Moshe Dayan will not surprise me, he is willing to do almost everything bad, but we will not write about it."

Maariv's editor-in-chief at the time told his son that the Israelis "should accept Dayan, both good and bad, because they need him, for it is their support and hope that will lead them to victory on the promised day."