[News] Israel-Palestine war: Israeli forces destroy central archive of Gaza city

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-israeli-forces-destroy-central-archive-gaza-city>
Israel-Palestine war: Israeli forces destroy central archive of Gaza city
By Nadda Osman
December 7, 2023
------------------------------

Heavy Israeli bombardment
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-palestine-war>has destroyed
the central archive of Gaza City, according to the Gaza municipality.

Photos published by local media and Birzeit University in the occupied West
Bank showed the building heavily damaged, with papers and documents
littering the floor.

“The Israeli occupation destroys the central archive of Gaza municipality,
executing thousands of historical documents, and deliberately razing all
life forms, erasing the city and its history,” Birzeit University posted
<https://twitter.com/BirzeitU/status/1732478937152778716>on social media
platform X on Wednesday.

“It is worth noting that the archive holds documents more than one hundred
years old,” it added.

Social media users have lambasted Israel’s bombing of the central archive,
calling it an attempt at “removing the history of Palestinians”.

“Israel for 75 years tried not just to erase us, but to destroy our
history, distort it, twist it to fit their narrative and steal or burn our
heritage. That’s why they wiped out 500+ Palestinian villages, bombed the
oldest church in Gaza and the central archive of its municipality,” one
social media user wrote.
<https://twitter.com/HeroPalestine0/status/1732604597447905735>

The building was previously targeted by Israeli air strikes on 29 November,
with the head of Gaza’s municipality, Yahya al-Sarraj, saying the attack
poses “a great danger to the city”, as the building was home to “thousands
of historically valuable documents for the community”.

“These documents represent an integral part of our history and culture,” he
told Anadolu news agency.
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/-israel-destroyed-central-archives-of-gaza-city-head-of-gaza-municipality/3068555>

“The Central Archives contain plans for ancient buildings of historical
value and documents in the handwriting of well-known national figures,” he
added.

Other notable cultural spaces have also been damaged in Israel’s bombing
campaign of Gaza, including cultural centres, public parks, the Gaza zoo
and Gaza’s main public library.

According to Sarraj, the Rashad al-Shawwa Historical Cultural Centre, which
houses a library and theatre, as well as the Palestinian Legislative
Council and the memorial monument in the Memorial Park, were also
destroyed.

Sarraj said that Israel is intentionally targeting important buildings and
civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has long-term impacts on the
besieged enclave’s historical heritage and identity.

'The attempt by the occupation to destroy everything beautiful, to erase
Palestinian memory… is making Palestinian cities uninhabitable'

– *Yahya al-Sarraj, head of Gaza’s municipality*

“The attempt by the occupation to destroy everything beautiful, to erase
Palestinian memory, and to impose a policy of obscuring the people, is
making Palestinian cities uninhabitable,” he said.

Last month, Gaza’s main public library
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-public-library-destroyed-bombing>
was left in ruins following heavy Israeli bombardment.

Officials decried the targeting of the building as a “deliberate attempt to
destroy historical documents and books”.

Photos of the destroyed building, with books scattered around on the floor,
were released by the municipality.

The library was in regular use by members of the community, including
schoolchildren, before the start of the latest conflict on 7 October.

Video footage shared by Storyful,
<https://uk.news.yahoo.com/gaza-public-library-destroyed-israeli-182955120.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKp62l-7sq1loSe7_geQSW_2Ye8lkSbvhDsSOlWGvPgoBui68EfPMq6Qxgk1UDstth627u8BERY6_950FwYTC_--zOUVoOtmZPFwejMOeNZ7DBL2Cwbk5KRKCg91TawVsneQ-dQag45n6HbL8Px2Pbc3p5GL2sKwOIywPE4PFRHB&guccounter=1%C2%A0>
a social media intelligence agency and open source intelligence and
verification platform, showed the destroyed building and the collapsed
bookshelves inside.

The bombing of the library was condemned widely online, as well as by
international organisations. Literary Hub,
<https://lithub.com/gazas-main-public-library-has-been-destroyed/> a daily
literary website launched in 2015, compared it to the 1992 attack on the
library in Sarajevo, where Bosnian Serb forces, stationed in the hills
above the city, razed the National and University Library of Bosnia and
Herzegovina to the ground.
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