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Palestinians’ cultural heritage

Librarians worldwide must stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Sir, – Thursday, October 24th marked the start of UN Global Media and Information Literacy Week. The UN notes that information from “the media, libraries, archives, museums, publishers or other information providers” largely determines a society’s “perceptions, beliefs and attitudes”.

This year, we witness a devastating military onslaught, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regards as plausibly amounting to genocide. One component of the Israeli state’s destruction appears calculated to annihilate the cultural heritage of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The South African application to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention noted last December that “Israel has damaged and destroyed numerous centres of Palestinian learning and culture”. Isber Sabrine of Heritage for Peace explained that “Israel is trying to erase the connection of the people with their land. It’s very clear and intentional. Gaza’s heritage is part of its people, it’s history and their connection.”

For instance, the Gaza Municipality’s central archive, which stored documents, ownership records and land registries dating back to Ottoman times, was bombed, burned and looted by Israeli troops in what Ramallah-based historian and writer Hossam Abu Nasser describes as “an attempt to prevent Palestinians from proving their ownership of their lands and properties”.

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If the values of librarianship mean anything at all, librarians worldwide must stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues, as organisations such as the International Council on Archives have already done.

The Library Association of Ireland (LAI) rightly responded to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with a speedy statement and a subsequent AGM motion.

We call upon the LAI, Ireland’s representative body of librarianship – the profession of media literacy – to make a public statement on what history is likely to conclude is a genocide of our time. – Yours, etc,

JANE BUGGLE,

(Masters of Library & Information Studies)

Dublin 18

BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,

(Masters of Library & Information Studies)

Dublin 4.