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The National, UAE
May 19 2013
Palestinian activists sue Israel for the return of 6,000 books
Vita Bekker
May 19, 2013
TEL AVIV // In December 1948, eight months after the start of the war
that created Israel, Khalil Beidas locked the door to his Jerusalem
home's library, a three-metre-high, floor-to-ceiling collection of
more than 6,000 books that had been his most prized asset.
The 75-year-old prominent Palestinian intellectual then escaped to
Lebanon, where he died less than a year later - partly, his grandson
says, because of the emotional pain from the loss of his library.
Amid the battles in Jerusalem, Hagop Melikian, an Armenia-born
Palestinian businessman, also fled along with his wife from their
apartment. He left a private library with dozens of books, including a
German-translated complete set of Shakespeare plays and a 19th-century
German encyclopaedia, through which he would not flip again. The tens
of thousands of books owned before the war by wealthy Palestinian
families like those of Beidas and Melikian is only a sliver of what
Palestinians lost when they were forced to flee what is now Israel.
Still, the issue of the books' whereabouts has gained controversy
after a 2011 revelation by an Israeli researcher that about 6,000
books that had belonged to the Palestinian cultural elite living in
West Jerusalem before the 1948 war are languishing in the basement of
the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and marked "abandoned
property".
The discovery was followed last year by a documentary, The Great Book
Robbery, which charged that the "plunder" of private Palestinian
libraries by Israeli librarians in the war's aftermath helped destroy
the then-vibrant Palestinian cultural renaissance.
Now, Palestinian activists are making a legal bid to get the books
back. Palestinian history experts like Mahmoud Yazbak of Israel's
Haifa University say their return could significantly shed light on
the pre-war Palestinian intellectual awakening that had been centred
in Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem was the Palestinian intellectual and cultural capital of
that time," said Mr Yazbak. "Most of Palestine's cultural heritage was
lost along with their houses. The loss is very big, much more than we
could ever imagine."
Following the 1948 war, a race began for the private possessions of
about 28,000 Palestinians who had lived in West Jerusalem - at the
time one of the region's wealthiest communities. Competing against the
widespread looting of Palestinian homes that was taking place
throughout Israel, librarians rushed to collect 30,000 mostly Arabic
books from the houses of Jerusalem's prominent Palestinian families,
according Gish Amit, an Israeli doctoral student who discovered the
Palestinian collection in the Jerusalem library by stumbling upon
documents on it in the library's archive.
Mr Amit, 40, says most of the 30,000 books collected are lost, and
only about 6,000 have been catalogued.
Tens of thousands of other Palestinian books were collected in cities
such as Haifa or Jaffa but their fate remains unknown.
The most prominent book-owner was Khalil Sakakini, a poet and scholar
who had escaped to Egypt, where he mourned the loss of his books in
his published diaries, wondering if they were transferred to a library
or used to "wrap onions" at a grocery store.
Mr Amit says Israel initially intended to return all the books, but
that policy appears to have changed. Indeed, while the books were at
first marked with the names of their rightful owners, those marks were
erased in the 1960s and replaced with the label AP, or abandoned
property. Nevertheless, he says, proof of ownership is still possible
through handwritten dedications, names and notes on book covers and
pages.
While the collection is closed to the public, individual books can be
accessed by special request. The Israeli finance ministry, which
includes the Custodian of Absentee Property, a body formed after the
1948 war which seized Palestinian refugees' abandoned property,
including the books, declined to comment on why the books have not
been returned.
Legal efforts are under way to recover the books. The Arab Cultural
Association, or ACA, a Palestinian cultural group in Israel, has
received legal permission to represent one book owner's family from
Jordan in a possible court petition while the heirs of three other
owners plan to give a similar nod.
"The books are a symbol of what we had lost. We shouldn't just sit and
do nothing because there's only a small chance of getting them back.
Maybe the court will give a kind of judgment that would open the way
for Palestinians to get more of our property back,"said Rawda Atallah,
ACA's director.
However, advancing the case could face opposition from some
Palestinians who may fear it could undermine Palestinian refugees'
overall claims Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal aid group
for Israel's Palestinian citizens, said Israel could view a return of
the books as a concession allowing it to keep other Palestinian
property.
Book-owners' family members have not lost hope in returning the books.
A grandson of Beidas, who did not want to give his name and has agreed
to be represented by ACA, said financially valuable books like first
editions of Russian classic novels given to his grandfather by members
of the Russian monarchy were probably stolen by individuals after the
war and are not in the library.
However, he added that original manuscripts of his grandfather's work
would have the highest "emotional value" for him and would probably be
in the collection because they "may not have been appreciated by
Israelis".
Anahid Melikian, the 89-year-old last surviving child of Melikian, who
lives in Canada, vividly recalls her father's private library in the
glass-encased wardrobe in the living room. Her father told the family
"to stop thinking about what they had left behind".
Anahid Melikian Helewa, a granddaughter of Melikian, who also lives in
Canada, said her bid to get answers about the books from the Israeli
Embassy in Ottawa has been fruitless.
"I want to let the world know that these books have owners and weren't
abandoned by choice."
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-activists-sue-israel-for-the-return-of-6-000-books#full
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
May 19 2013
Palestinian activists sue Israel for the return of 6,000 books
Vita Bekker
May 19, 2013
TEL AVIV // In December 1948, eight months after the start of the war
that created Israel, Khalil Beidas locked the door to his Jerusalem
home's library, a three-metre-high, floor-to-ceiling collection of
more than 6,000 books that had been his most prized asset.
The 75-year-old prominent Palestinian intellectual then escaped to
Lebanon, where he died less than a year later - partly, his grandson
says, because of the emotional pain from the loss of his library.
Amid the battles in Jerusalem, Hagop Melikian, an Armenia-born
Palestinian businessman, also fled along with his wife from their
apartment. He left a private library with dozens of books, including a
German-translated complete set of Shakespeare plays and a 19th-century
German encyclopaedia, through which he would not flip again. The tens
of thousands of books owned before the war by wealthy Palestinian
families like those of Beidas and Melikian is only a sliver of what
Palestinians lost when they were forced to flee what is now Israel.
Still, the issue of the books' whereabouts has gained controversy
after a 2011 revelation by an Israeli researcher that about 6,000
books that had belonged to the Palestinian cultural elite living in
West Jerusalem before the 1948 war are languishing in the basement of
the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and marked "abandoned
property".
The discovery was followed last year by a documentary, The Great Book
Robbery, which charged that the "plunder" of private Palestinian
libraries by Israeli librarians in the war's aftermath helped destroy
the then-vibrant Palestinian cultural renaissance.
Now, Palestinian activists are making a legal bid to get the books
back. Palestinian history experts like Mahmoud Yazbak of Israel's
Haifa University say their return could significantly shed light on
the pre-war Palestinian intellectual awakening that had been centred
in Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem was the Palestinian intellectual and cultural capital of
that time," said Mr Yazbak. "Most of Palestine's cultural heritage was
lost along with their houses. The loss is very big, much more than we
could ever imagine."
Following the 1948 war, a race began for the private possessions of
about 28,000 Palestinians who had lived in West Jerusalem - at the
time one of the region's wealthiest communities. Competing against the
widespread looting of Palestinian homes that was taking place
throughout Israel, librarians rushed to collect 30,000 mostly Arabic
books from the houses of Jerusalem's prominent Palestinian families,
according Gish Amit, an Israeli doctoral student who discovered the
Palestinian collection in the Jerusalem library by stumbling upon
documents on it in the library's archive.
Mr Amit, 40, says most of the 30,000 books collected are lost, and
only about 6,000 have been catalogued.
Tens of thousands of other Palestinian books were collected in cities
such as Haifa or Jaffa but their fate remains unknown.
The most prominent book-owner was Khalil Sakakini, a poet and scholar
who had escaped to Egypt, where he mourned the loss of his books in
his published diaries, wondering if they were transferred to a library
or used to "wrap onions" at a grocery store.
Mr Amit says Israel initially intended to return all the books, but
that policy appears to have changed. Indeed, while the books were at
first marked with the names of their rightful owners, those marks were
erased in the 1960s and replaced with the label AP, or abandoned
property. Nevertheless, he says, proof of ownership is still possible
through handwritten dedications, names and notes on book covers and
pages.
While the collection is closed to the public, individual books can be
accessed by special request. The Israeli finance ministry, which
includes the Custodian of Absentee Property, a body formed after the
1948 war which seized Palestinian refugees' abandoned property,
including the books, declined to comment on why the books have not
been returned.
Legal efforts are under way to recover the books. The Arab Cultural
Association, or ACA, a Palestinian cultural group in Israel, has
received legal permission to represent one book owner's family from
Jordan in a possible court petition while the heirs of three other
owners plan to give a similar nod.
"The books are a symbol of what we had lost. We shouldn't just sit and
do nothing because there's only a small chance of getting them back.
Maybe the court will give a kind of judgment that would open the way
for Palestinians to get more of our property back,"said Rawda Atallah,
ACA's director.
However, advancing the case could face opposition from some
Palestinians who may fear it could undermine Palestinian refugees'
overall claims Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal aid group
for Israel's Palestinian citizens, said Israel could view a return of
the books as a concession allowing it to keep other Palestinian
property.
Book-owners' family members have not lost hope in returning the books.
A grandson of Beidas, who did not want to give his name and has agreed
to be represented by ACA, said financially valuable books like first
editions of Russian classic novels given to his grandfather by members
of the Russian monarchy were probably stolen by individuals after the
war and are not in the library.
However, he added that original manuscripts of his grandfather's work
would have the highest "emotional value" for him and would probably be
in the collection because they "may not have been appreciated by
Israelis".
Anahid Melikian, the 89-year-old last surviving child of Melikian, who
lives in Canada, vividly recalls her father's private library in the
glass-encased wardrobe in the living room. Her father told the family
"to stop thinking about what they had left behind".
Anahid Melikian Helewa, a granddaughter of Melikian, who also lives in
Canada, said her bid to get answers about the books from the Israeli
Embassy in Ottawa has been fruitless.
"I want to let the world know that these books have owners and weren't
abandoned by choice."
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-activists-sue-israel-for-the-return-of-6-000-books#full
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress