The Cultural Genocide of Palestinian Heritage
Local Editor, 29-01-2010
Tens of thousands of Palestinian books and transcripts were destroyed in the few years after the Zionist entity usurped Palestine in the middle of the last century, al-Jazeera reported.
The report came as a review of a doctorial thesis is set to be submitted to Ben-Gurion University next month by a researcher.
In an interview published on al-Jazeera's website Thursday, the researcher stated that ‘Israel' destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture.
According to the doctoral dissertation, ‘Israeli' authorities collected tens of thousands of Arab books in occupied al-Quds, Yafa, Haifa, Safad, and other towns that were home to Arabs. Occupation officials destroying around half the books, characterizing them as a "security threat," the researcher said.
The researcher stressed, based on ‘Israeli' archives, that ‘Israeli' occupation troops plundered the books from the homes of Palestinians expelled during the "Nakba" and handed them over to authorities.
The researcher told al-Jazeera that according to documents he possesses, ‘Israel' destroyed 27,000 books in 1958, saying that they were useless and threatened the State. Authorities sold the books, most of them textbooks, to a paper plant, he said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian books and transcripts were destroyed in the few years after the Zionist entity usurped Palestine in the middle of the last century, al-Jazeera reported.
The report came as a review of a doctorial thesis is set to be submitted to Ben-Gurion University next month by a researcher.
In an interview published on al-Jazeera's website Thursday, the researcher stated that ‘Israel' destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture.
According to the doctoral dissertation, ‘Israeli' authorities collected tens of thousands of Arab books in occupied al-Quds, Yafa, Haifa, Safad, and other towns that were home to Arabs. Occupation officials destroying around half the books, characterizing them as a "security threat," the researcher said.
The researcher stressed, based on ‘Israeli' archives, that ‘Israeli' occupation troops plundered the books from the homes of Palestinians expelled during the "Nakba" and handed them over to authorities.
The researcher told al-Jazeera that according to documents he possesses, ‘Israel' destroyed 27,000 books in 1958, saying that they were useless and threatened the State. Authorities sold the books, most of them textbooks, to a paper plant, he said.
"This was a cultural massacre undertaken in a manner that was worse than European colonialism, which safeguarded the items it stole in libraries and museums," the researcher exclaimed, adding that some books were sold at discounted prices to Arab schools, while the others were transferred to the Hebrew University's library in occupied al-Quds.
The researcher estimated that about 6,000 Palestinian books are currently available at the National Library at Hebrew University. However, he said that many other books in Arabic, English, and French were not recorded, stating that most of them are being held in the library's warehouses and cannot be accessed.
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