Edited by Lianne Lee
One of Gaza’s largest booksellers, the Samir Mansour Bookstore, was destroyed in May of 2021 by Israeli airstrikes. It was founded by Samir Mansour, a Palestinian living in Gaza, and has been around for 21 years. It contained over 10,000 books in multiple languages, covering many subjects such as art, history, philosophy, children’s fiction, general fiction, etc (Flood, 2021).
During the 11 day war between Israel and the Hama terror group, an airstrike reduced the bookstore to nothing but rubble and charred pages (Demolished during, 2022).
“The Israeli airstrikes bombed half of the building and my bookshop was in the other half. I wished they would stop … My feet took me a few steps forward, towards the bookshop. The last missile came and destroyed the building,” said Mansour, the owner of the bookstore. “It was six in the morning. I didn’t know what to do. I started searching among the rubble for anything related to my library. But everything was under the rubble.”
He vowed to “rebuild all over again, no matter what it took from me.”
“Dropping bombs on Samir Mansour’s bookshop is not the worst tragedy to have hit the people of Gaza – but this particular airstrike targeted access to books. It was an attack on the knowledge and literacy of this community. Samir lost almost 100,000 books and served schoolchildren and adults alike,” said Mahvish Rukhsana, a human rights lawyer. “I knew hospitals and roads would receive funding, but secondary cultural institutions such as libraries are often overlooked but equally critical to the community.”
Under a campaign by the human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith, a fundraiser has raised over £141,000 to help rebuild the bookstore, while the international community has donated tens of thousands of books in an effort to help the shop (Flood, 2021).
In London, Zafar Ibrahim and his brother Fahim Ibrahim collected books from donors within and outside of London- from schools, shops, homes, and garages.
“Destroying a bookshop, a place where people have access to escape from reality, almost, by reading a book, or taking them a world away – when that’s been taken away, I felt I needed to do something,” says Ibrahim. (Humaid & Saber, 2022)
The bookshop reopened in 2022 alongside a new library, both owned by Mansour.
“I was so happy when I saw the first shipment had arrived … I felt like a reborn phoenix,” said Mansour. “I did not expect all this support. But it was something beyond imagination and something more than wonderful.” (Flood, 2022)
References
[Demolished during 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict, an iconic Gaza bookstore reopens]. (2022,
February 17). The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/demolished-during-
2021-israel-hamas-conflict-an-iconic-gaza-bookstore-reopens/
Flood, A. (2021, June 21). Donations flood in to restore Gaza bookshop destroyed by Israeli
airstrikes. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/21/donations-
flood-in-to-restore-gaza-bookshop-destroyed-by-israeli-airstrikes
Flood, A. (2022, January 28). 'More than wonderful' … Gaza bookshop to reopen after
unexpectedly successful global campaign. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/28/gaza-samir-mansour-bookshop-
reopening-after-global-campaign
Hana, A. (2022, February 17). [People browse bookshelves at the Samir Mansour Bookstore
during a re-opening ceremony in Gaza City, on February 17, 2022]. The Times of
Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/demolished-during-2021-israel-hamas-conflict-
an-iconic-gaza-bookstore-reopens/
Humaid, M., & Saber, I. F. (2022, February 24). Books across borders. Al Jazeera.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/2/24/books-across-borders-
rebuilding-gazas-destroyed-bookshop
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