Briefing paper on the damage inflicted on the library and archives sector in the Gaza Strip

Introduction to the conference

The crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people

Genocide, ethnic cleansing

Crimes against humanity

(February 12, 2024)

The National Library of Palestine

2024

Briefing paper on the damage inflicted on the library and archives sector in the Gaza Strip.

Palestine, throughout its historical depth, has formed a theater of civilizations due to its geographical location and religious status. It also served as a communication forum for cultures across various historical stages, all of which distinguished it with abundant national wealth. 

Libraries, archives and manuscripts are considered an integral part of the Palestinian cultural scene and have always played an important role in its development and growth. It also contributed to preserving The national and cultural identity of the Palestinian people. 

Since the Nakba of 1948, the Israeli occupation has targeted all components of our cultural and historical heritage, through policies of plunder, theft, and falsification, obliterating its features, and alienating its identity, with the aim of erasing memory and history, canceling facts, and replacing its biblical narrative.

This briefing provides an overview of the role of the National Library in preserving and protecting intellectual production and documentary heritage in Palestine and the diaspora. The briefing includes a preliminary monitoring of the damage caused to the library and archives sector in the declared war on the Gaza Strip, documentation mechanisms and methodology, and The role of the National Library in future legal action with Arab, Islamic, regional and international institutions of similar jurisdiction.

The role of the National Library of Palestine in preserving and protecting intellectual production, libraries and archives: 

 The National Library is considered an incubator of intellectual, cultural and historical heritage. One of its main functions is to collect intellectual production and national intellectual heritage wherever it is found, in its various forms and types, and contributes to the development of the library sector and administrative archives centers through: Qualification, training, and professional partnership in terms of exchanging collections, electronic networking, and holding joint seminars and conferences that support developing this sector and serving researchers and beneficiaries. All of this is done through direct relations with libraries of various types or through coordination in joint projects with the Palestinian Library and Information Association.

The preliminary information provided about the damage occurred to the libraries, archives and manuscripts sector over the course of four months of the war declared on the Gaza Strip indicates that a major crime has occurred and is still occurring against the cultural and historical heritage in general, and the libraries, administrative and historical archives, manuscripts, and information services institutions in particular. 

The war on Gaza destroyed a rich and enormous wealth of books, manuscripts, historical documents, audio-visual materials, equipment, registry records, civil records, collectibles, historical artifacts, and administrative archives in the archive departments of government institutions such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the National Council, and the Legislative Council, also, the archive centers in municipalities, public, private, and university libraries, schools libraries, libraries in mosques and churches dating back many centuries. The number of holdings in these places is estimated at tens of thousands of books and hundreds of thousands of historical documents, manuscripts, and administrative records.

the National Library monitored and documented the damage by following up on the periodic reports issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory, the International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People, the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. Despite the difficulty of documentation and field monitoring, we can confirm the following preliminary statistics:

Since the first days of the war, on October 7, the National Library of Palestine began forming a documentation team to collect the damage that occurred in Gaza using a scientific and professional documentation methodology that conforms to approved international standards in order to create an integrated documentary record that can be relied on as a source and reference for international competent authorities, such as prosecuting the perpetrators or as a research reference in the future.

the documentation methodology relied on the following axes:

• Means and tools of documentation, information gathering, follow-up, and comparison through: media, press reports, narratives, eyewitnesses to the event.
• Collect, analyze and describe materials, whether they are news, reports, images, videos, or narratives.
• Opening a manual and electronic registration that classifies and tabulates violations and damage, organizes and categorizes them into topics and sectors.
• Update information.
• Documentation outputs.
• Issuing a documentation report with complete components and elements describing the violations and attaching evidence to time and place.
• Translating the final report into different languages.

The National Library is ready to follow up and coordinate with Arab, regional and international bodies regarding the Israeli violations of the libraries and archives sector in the Gaza Strip during the war and the events that are currently happening in the West Bank. Note that these violations violate and contravene international humanitarian law and international agreements, protocols and principles.

On the international level, the National library follows up with the competent authorities on an ongoing basis through its membership in the following institutions:

• The Arab Branch of the International Council on Archives.
• The Arab Federation for Libraries and Information.
• The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
• The Arab Committee for the Recovery of Stolen Archives in the League of Arab States.
• The Islamic Union of Archives.

While on the local level, the National library is Coordinating efforts with competent authorities such as: The National Committee for Education, Culture and Science and the Palestinian Library and Information Association, so that the National Library can be the liaison officer with UNESCO regarding providing them with reports on Israeli violations.

Recommendations:

• The necessity of continuous arrangement and coordination between institutions in the processes of documenting the crimes and violations of the Israeli occupation.
• The necessity of continuous communication through periodic meetings in order to reach a final conclusion with documentary outputs and reports that conform to international standards.
• Defining our future vision for action at the Arab, regional and international levels.
• Translating the outputs of the documentary reports into multiple languages.
• providing responsible authorities and decision-makers with these reports.
• Distributing the reports to Palestinian embassies and parties supporting our cause, to expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation.