Ramallah-national library: the national library of Palestine confirmed today, Wednesday, that the Israeli occupation committed crimes against the cultural heritage in the Gaza strip, and targeted hundreds of cultural and heritage monuments during the war, as well as targeting human beings.
The thirteenth of March every year marks Palestinian National Culture Day, it is the birthday of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who left a poetic and prose legacy that formed a unique model in Palestinian and Arab culture through which he depicted the Palestinian cause, homeland, identity and revolution and conveyed them to the world.
The national library indicated that the war on Gaza destroyed a rich and enormous wealth of books, manuscripts, historical documents, administrative archives, audio-visual materials, equipment, manual and electronic preserving methods, registry records, civil records, collectibles, historical artifacts, in addition to public, private and university libraries, also libraries in schools, mosques and churches dating back many centuries, as well as, cultural centers and historical buildings and museums.
Furthermore, the destruction affected hundreds of historical buildings including the Pasha palace, which is a Mamluk monument that was converted to a museum in 2010 and contained 100,000 archaeological pieces, the historic Saqqa House, which dates back to the Ottoman period, Al-Camiliyya school, Hammam al-Samra which was the last of the Ottoman baths in Gaza were also destroyed. Moreover, the occupation targeted and bombed the Baptist Hospital, a historic building built in 1882, in addition to bombing four ancient churches with guided missiles which were considered important cultural symbols in Palestine, including the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Baptist Church and its hospital.
The Israeli war machine also destroyed 26 cultural centers and theaters, including: Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, Rafah Museum and Al-Qarara Museum, it also burned the Hotel museum and hundreds of private and public libraries such as the Khan Yunis Library, destroyed 12 universities, and looted the holdings of antiquities, archives, manuscripts and murals stores. Likewise, They Destroyed schools, kindergartens, and ministries’ buildings, burned their electronic and paper records and archives, and burned publishing houses, cultural centers, and the headquarters of artistic and cultural production companies.
about 1,000 mosques in Gaza were bombed and destroyed out of 1,200 mosques, including the Omari Mosque in Gaza, which is one of the most important and oldest mosques in historical Palestine, they also bulldozed Beit Hanoun cemetery and 600 graves in it were exhumed, and many other cemeteries, and destroyed 325 historical sites, including the newly discovered cemetery, which dates back about 2000 years and contained a collection of coffins made of lead.
The Israeli occupation killed more than 50 writers, poets, and artists, including: Sham Abu Ubaid and Laila Abdel Fattah Al-Atrash, and killed about 40 scholars, including: Rifaat Al-Arir and Dr. Sufyan Tayeh, and killed 94 university professors, 17 of whom held professor’s degrees, 59 held doctoral degrees, and 18 master’s degrees.
The National Library called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian cultural heritage located in the Gaza Strip, based on the principle of ownership of property and cultural objects for all of humanity, and that attacking it constitutes an attack against all peoples of the world, calling for adherence to The Hague Convention of 1954, which prohibits the destruction and damage to cultural heritage in armed conflicts.
