Posted:
May 22, 2012 - 18:43
by:
Benny Brunner
I know, I didn't post for many long months. Simply put, I just didn't have the time. The work on editing the film and everything around it consumed all my time. Now, that we are post the Aljazeera broadcast and the
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Posted:
January 22, 2012 - 18:26
by:
Benny Brunner
Two weeks into the editing; only logging the material but the story’s contours begin to get into shape. Next to dramatic testimonies of Palestinians we have some really arrogant Israeli justifications of what took place in 1948.
It is fascinating to watch many of our interviewees struggling with fading memories and elusive recollections of their distant past. But, memory and the struggle to shape it form a key subject matter of this film. After all, one of this project's aims is to avoid the memory of what happened to the Palestinian books in 1948 from fading into oblivion.
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Posted:
November 18, 2011 - 13:36
by:
Karina Goulordava
This past Wednesday I spoke on West Philadelphia's Radio Against Apartheid on WPEB 88.1 hosted by Matt Graber. Author of 'Mornings in Jenin' Susan Abulwaha and I discussed the importance of The Great Book Robbery and how it can be viewed through the lens of Edward Said's theory of Orientalism. Below is the link to listen to the podcast in full. If you're in the Philadelphia area, tune in every Wednesday night at 9:00pm for a new show.
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Posted:
October 9, 2011 - 16:37
by:
Karina Goulordava
This last and final post contains quotes from Gish Amit's essay which features an excerpt from the National Library's annual booklet entitled, "The National Library News." The following quote comes from their January 1948-June 1949 report. "Throughout the years of fighting, the National Library has collected tens of thousands of abandoned books, thus saving them from ruin. This operation has been carried out with dedication and sacrifice on the employees' part.
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Posted:
October 7, 2011 - 16:10
by:
Karina Goulordava
In the summer of 1948, another memo was published concerning the looted Palestinian books. This time the memo was issued by Dr. Strauss, the head of the Eastern Sciences Department at the National Library. Dr. Strauss received, catalogued and stored the books. His memo was entitled, "Processing the Arab books from the occupied territories."
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Posted:
October 6, 2011 - 13:48
by:
Karina Goulordava
On July 26, 1948 Kurt Warman, the director of the National Library received a letter from an unknown source. The letter read, "According to my estimates, 12,000 books or more have been collected so far. A large portion of the libraries of Arab writers and scholars is now in a safe place. Several bags of manuscripts, whose value has not been evaluated yet, are also in our hands. Most of the books come from Katamon, but we have also reached the German Colony and Musrara. We found some magnificent Arab libraries in Musrara. We also removed from Musrara part of the Swedish School's library.
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Posted:
September 29, 2011 - 14:02
by:
Karina Goulordava
The director of the National Library, Kurt Warman wrote the following concerning the handling of the looted, Palestinian book.
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Posted:
September 28, 2011 - 15:44
by:
Karina Goulordava
In mid-June 1948, the first letters were written directly referring to what is now known as The Great Book Robbery. David Senator, a Hebrew University administrator, sent the first letter to the Jewish Agency's directorate. The letter was labeled for "urgent discussion." Attached to the letter was a memo from the director of the National Library, Kurt Warman.
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Posted:
September 27, 2011 - 13:19
by:
Karina Goulordava
As promised yesterday, The Great Book Robbery has launched a new blog series for this week. We will feature specific quotes from Gish Amit's essay which appeared in the Jerusalem Quaterly. These quotes bring to light the systematic efforts behind the looting of Palestinian books during the 1948 war.
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Posted:
September 26, 2011 - 14:11
by:
Karina Goulordava
For some, it can be hard to believe that The Great Book Robbery was truly a systematic action taken against the Palestinian people. After all, such an effort requires the collaboration of many people from various institutions including the army, library and government. In addition, who would even think about books during a war? However, the raiding of public and private Palestinian libraries during the 1948 war was in fact a planned and evidently well-executed maneuver.
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