Draft:Samir Mansour Library
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The Samir Mansour Library is a library, bookshop, and publishing house in Gaza, Palestine. It is one of the biggest libraries in the region, and was one of the first. It was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in 2021, and rebuilt with fundraising from a GoFundMe campaign.
Function
[edit]The library functions as a library, bookshop, and publishing house. It is the biggest library or bookshop in Gaza.[1] It has books in both Arabic and English.[2] The library is located near three universities, including the Islamic University of Gaza and is used by students.[3] The publishing house focuses on Palestinian writers, with the books printed in Egypt.[4]
History
[edit]The library's owner, Samir Mansour, had worked with books since he was 15 in the 1980s, helping his father in his bookshop.[5] Mansour started his own bookshop and publishing house started in 2000. It was called the Samir Mansour bookshop, although it allowed visitors to read books in the shop "without any obligation to purchase".[6] The original bookshop contained around 100,000 books.[7]
Initial destruction
[edit]The Kuheil building, where the bookshop was housed since 2008,[8] was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in May 2021, along with the nearby Iqraa library and two other bookshops.[9] Mansour was at home when he saw a warning on television that the building his bookshop was in was going to be destroyed. He ran to the shop, but stopped 200m away and saw Israeli planes fire two missiles on the building.[7] The Israeli military said that the bookshop was not a target, but that the building the bookshop was in "contained a Hamas facility for producing weapons and intelligence-gathering."[9]
Rebuilding efforts
[edit]A GoFundMe to rebuild the bookshop was started by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith[10] and managed by the non-profit organisation Reprieve.[11] The campaign raised over USD$200,000 for the rebuilding of the bookshop and over 10,000 books were donated. Books2Door, a UK children's bookseller, donated 1000 books to the library.[6] Many people who donated books left messages and their email addresses in the books.[7] Mansour's only request of those donating books was for Harry Potter books, saying they are very popular with children in Gaza.[10] This led many people to donate boxsets of the series.[10]
The owner, Mansour, reopened it as a bookshop and library[6] with plans to build a Gaza Cultural Centre library next door.[9] Seven months after the initial destruction, the library was 90% rebuilt.[9] Nine months after initial destruction, the library was ultimately rebuilt to triple the size of the original building with a collection of 400,000 books.[12][7] It was reopened on 17 February 2022.[7]
Second bombing
[edit]In October 2023, the library was damaged in an Israeli airstrike.[12][13] along with eight other publishing houses and libraries.[14]
Honours
[edit]In November 2021, the library was nominated for the International Publishers Association 2021 Prix Voltaire prize, which honours freedom to publish.[15] In 2024, it was again nominated for the Prix Voltaire prize and won.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ "Gaza's largest bookstore has been destroyed". Literary Hub. 2021-05-20. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ Kusuma, Nazalea (2022-05-10). "How a Bookshop in Gaza Came Back to Life". Green Network Asia. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ Elbaum, Rachel (2021-05-20). "Beloved Gaza bookshop becomes a casualty of Israel-Hamas conflict". NBC News. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ "Gaza bookshop owner's dreams buried under the rubble". Jordan Times. 2021-05-23. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ admin (2021-05-24). "'The Beautiful Face of Gaza'; Why Israel Bombed Samir Mansour's Library (PHOTOS)". Palestine Chronicle. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ a b c Flood, Alison (2021-06-21). "Donations flood in to restore Gaza bookshop destroyed by Israeli airstrikes". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ a b c d e Saber, Indlieb Farazi; Humaid, Maram (2022-02-24). "Books across borders: Rebuilding Gaza's destroyed bookshop". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ Bulos, Nabih (2021-06-01). "He watched two missiles destroy his bookshop. 'My soul came out of me'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ a b c d McKernan, Bethan (2021-12-04). "Bookseller Samir Mansour: 'It was shocking to realise I was a target'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ a b c Flood, Alison (2022-01-28). "'More than wonderful' … Gaza bookshop to reopen after unexpectedly successful global campaign". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ Skopeliti, Clea. "Gaza's main bookshops bombed to ground by Israel". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2025-06-28. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ a b Zakaria, Sherouk (2023-10-13). "Gaza's iconic bookshop damaged again in Israeli strike". Arab News. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ Saber, Indlieb Farazi. "A 'cultural genocide': Which of Gaza's heritage sites have been destroyed?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
- ^ "The Second Preliminary Report on the Cultural Sector Damage: War on Gaza Strip October 7th - December 6th, 2023" (PDF). UNESCO.
- ^ "Samir Mansour Bookshop for Publishing: Rebuilding a Cultural Oasis in Gaza". International Publishers Association.
- ^ Anderson, Porter (2024-12-06). "Gaza Bookseller Samir Mansour Wins the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved 2025-07-26.