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The Great Book Robbery

Brunner, Benny (director)
http://vimeo.com/48141495

Year Published:  2012  
Resource Type:  Film/Video

As Palestinians were expelled from their land in 1948, librarians from Israel’s National Library followed the militias as they forced their way into Palestinian homes. Their mission was to collect as many valuable books, manuscripts, photographs and artworks as possible – an estimated 70,000 books were seized.

Abstract:  “Goodbye, my books! Farewell to the house of wisdom… I do not know what became of you after we left….” These haunting words by Khalil al-Sakakini, a prominent Palestinian educator from Jerusalem, chronicle one of the untold stories of the Nakba. As Palestinians were expelled from their land in 1948, librarians from Israel’s National Library followed the militias as they forced their way into Palestinian homes. Their mission was to collect as many valuable books, manuscripts, photographs and artworks as possible – an estimated 70,000 books were seized and labelled ‘AP’ (Abandoned Property). Officially, the Israelis labelled this as a ‘cultural rescue operation’ but for Palestinians it was ‘cultural theft’. In 2008, an Israeli PhD student stumbled across documents in the national archive that revealed the full extent of the ‘collection’ policy. Using interviews, animation and secret footage, the film tells the stories of the books and their owners, and exposes Israel’s refusal to return the looted property to their rightful owners.

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