Central Archives of Gaza City
| Central Archives of Gaza City | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 31°30′25″N 34°27′36″E / 31.50694°N 34.46000°E | |
| Location | Gaza City, State of Palestine |
| Type | National archives |
| Dissolution | 2023 (destroyed) |
The Central Archives of Gaza City (Arabic: أرشيف غزة المركزي, arshif ghaza almarkazi) was an archive and study centre in Gaza, Palestine. The centre was destroyed in late November 2023 during the Israel–Hamas war.
The Central Archives were kept within the administrative buildings of Gaza City.[1] The archive contained materials that documented the lives of Palestinians going back 150 years, as well as material relating to urban development.[1][2]
Destruction
[edit]Al Jazeera reported the building had been targeted repeatedly since the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.[1] The New Arab reported that heavy shelling in late November led to its destruction,[2] including, according to Middle East Eye, a bombing on 29 November.[3] The Palestinian branch of International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) reported the archives completely destroyed.[4] Images were released by Birzeit University and local press on social media, showing the vast majority of flammable material reduced to ashes.[3] Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian analyst, related the destruction to the 1982 theft of material relating to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation from the Palestinian Research Centre in Beirut.[2]
Gaza Municipality said that the bombing caused a major fire in the Municipality headquarters, according to the Palestinian Information Center.[5][better source needed]
Responses by international archivist and history associations
[edit]The International Council on Archives put out a statement condemning "all actors in the region" drawing on The Universal Declaration on Archives.[6] The Oral History Society, said it would "do its best to support the recording and remembering of that history when the rebuilding of Gaza can begin".[7] Other statements were shared by the Association of Canadian Archivists,[8] amongst others.
Efforts to record and archive remaining digitised archives involve the online repository Palestinian Nexus.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "الجزيرة ترصد آثار تدمير الاحتلال مبنى الأرشيف المركزي في غزة". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ a b c Bajec, Alessandra (18 December 2023). "How Israel's war is erasing Gaza's history and culture". The New Arab. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ a b "Israel-Palestine war: Israeli forces destroy central archive of Gaza city". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Gaza City archives among heritage sites destroyed in Israel-Hamas war". The Art Newspaper – International art news and events. 22 December 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Gaza Municipality: Israel's bombing of Central Archive destroys thousands of historical documents". The Palestinian Information Center. 29 November 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Statement of the International Council on Archives on the Destruction of the Central Archives of the Municipality of Gaza | International Council on Archives". www.ica.org. 9 February 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Oral History Society (UK) statement on the destruction of libraries and archives in Gaza during the current conflict – Oral History Society". 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "Association of Canadian Archivists Statement on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Announcements". connect.archivists.org. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ "How digital archives are preserving Palestinian history amid Israel's bombardment of Gaza". Arab News. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
