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Dossier - Histoire culturelle des bibliothèques

Confiscation and management of the Palestinian Libraries during and after 1948: rescue or looting?

La confiscation et la gestion des bibliothèques palestiniennes durant et après 1948 : sauvetage ou pillage ?
Kamal Mo'ed

Résumés

Cet article a pour objectif d’examiner le sort des livres et bibliothèques appartenant à des Palestiniens, pillés ou confisqués en 1948, puis transférés à la Bibliothèque nationale et à l’Université hébraïque. Au début du XXe siècle, les bibliothèques privées et publiques faisaient partie intégrante du processus de modernisation de la société palestinienne. Pendant la guerre de 1948, ces bibliothèques, tant privées que publiques, ont été transférées à la Bibliothèque nationale d’Israël. Ce transfert, qui aurait pu être considéré comme une opération de préservation, a pris une nouvelle dimension lorsque la question de la restitution des livres à leurs propriétaires n’a plus été soulevée. L’identification de ces livres sous le titre « AP » (Abandoned Property, biens abandonnés) a marqué leur entrée définitive dans les collections nationales, entravant la possibilité de leur éventuelle restitution. Ces questions controversées ont été soulevées tout au long de l’histoire tourmentée de ces collections.

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Introduction

1One of the characteristics of Palestinian society since the beginning of the twentieth century, especially in urban areas, was a broad cultural renaissance marked by the spread of newspapers, particularly in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa; the establishment of cultural and sports clubs; and the beginning of book acquisitions as well as the establishment of public libraries, bookstores, and private libraries in the homes of educated and wealthy Palestinians. During the 1948 war (The Nakba as Palestinians considering it), most of these libraries were taken by Israeli soldiers in collaboration with the staff from the Hebrew University and the National Library. These tens of thousands of books remain on the shelves of the National Library to this day and never have been returned to their owners or to any Palestinian political or cultural institution.

2This article attempts to examine the role of the Hebrew University and the National Library and the significance of the inclusion of these books among their collections. Furthermore, what will be addressed in this article is how the Israeli position changed over the years, from a desire to return the books to their owners, or to an official Palestinian institution, to a position that refuses to return them. Finally, we will attempt to see if the confiscation of these books was part of a global policy of control in a colonial context.

  • 1 This documentary film was of importance since all the people interviewed in it had a direct and per (...)

3To write this study, I used documents from the National Library in Jerusalem and the state archives. Diaries and memoirs of Palestinian intellectuals whose libraries were confiscated were also used, as were testimonies from employees who had worked to catalog books at the National Library since the 1950s. In addition, we consulted articles and reports published in the Israeli press during and after 1948 war. Another source was Benny Brunner's 2012 documentary film (The Great Book Looting) in which he interviewed several people, Arabs and Jews, some of whom had been library clerks since the early 1950s, while others were Arabs who owned books or who were forced to collect books.1

The creation of book collections within Palestinian society during the mandate period

  • 2 Nabil Badran, Al-Ta'lim wa'l-tahdith fi'l mujtama' al-filastini fi 'ahd al-intidab [Education and m (...)

4From the end of the 19th century and throughout the period of the British Mandate (1920-1948), Palestinian society underwent accelerated modernization processes, especially in the cities of Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa, which became centers of the wealthy and educated Palestinian bourgeoisie. Communities of educated European missionary immigrants who came to Palestine at the end of the 19th century had a great influence on the modernization process in urban society. The level of illiteracy decreased, as the number of people reading and writing books or translating books into Arabic increased.2

  • 3 Rashid Khalidi, Klov ha barzil: siphor maabkam shil ha-falastinim lamdinah [The Iron Cage: The stor (...)

5The modernization process expanded during the British Mandate. In addition to the missionary schools that had been founded at the end of the nineteenth century, official government schools were established, as well as teacher-training colleges (some of whose graduates continued their studies abroad), and schools for industry, commerce, and agriculture. Palestinian scholars and educators who had studied abroad returned and took part in the modernization process. They knew that the main task to meet the difficult challenges within the Palestinian society was to lower the level of illiteracy. The percentage of Palestinians who could read and write in 1931 was only 22% (compared to 86% in Jewish society).3 The result was that throughout the years of the mandate, more and more bookstores, public libraries, book lending shops, as shops selling newspapers were opened in Palestinian cities.

  • 4 Mustafa Kabha, “Ha hivrah ha'aravit-falastinit bitkofat hamandat [Arab-Palestinian Society during t (...)

6Generally, books were rare in Ottoman Palestine. Their purchase was slow and expensive and only possible through book agents outside Palestine. Hence, most books were in the homes of a few educated and urban clerics. Before World War I, several bookstores and newspapers were opened in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa. During the British mandate, the process of publishing newspapers was accelerated because of the conflict. At that period, about 200 newspapers appeared: 48 were founded by 1929, 85 were founded in the 1930s, and 67 were founded in the 1940s. The most influential newspapers were Filastin, al-Karmil, and al-Difa'. Publishing such a large number of newspapers thus expanded the circles of reading in the cities and especially in the villages.4

  • 5 Ami Ayalon, Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy 1900-1948, Austin, University of Texas Press, (...)
  • 6 Israel State Archive (ISA), 'National Library file', F-15/327.
  • 7 A. Ayalon, op. cit., p. 90.

7The creation of bookshops fulfilled this appetence for books. Maktabat Filastin al-I'lmiyyha', the bookstore of the brothers Bulus and Wadi' Sa'id (Edward Said's father) was one of the most important and well-known in Palestine. Later, it had several branches, not only in Palestine, but also in Lebanon and Egypt. Bookstores developed over time and its owners were not content with only selling books, but also published and lent books, and sold office equipment.5 The momentum of establishing bookstores continued during the mandate. In 1945, the “Union of Arab Bookstore Owners in Palestine” was founded in Jaffa, and was joined by 51 bookstore owners.6 As a result of this cultural modernization, libraries were established in almost every home of the Palestinian urban Christian and Muslim elite and were considered an important social status symbol. From the end of the Ottoman period and throughout the years of the British Mandate, we can mention quite a few distinguished families in the Palestinian cities that had established libraries in their homes: Husseini, Nashashibi, Dajani, 'Alami, Khalidi, Darwazah, 'Abd al-Hadi, Khatib, Tamimi, Tuqan, Zu'aytar, Rimawi, 'Anabtawi, Masri, Zu'bi, Shawa, 'Aref, and more.7

  • 8 Salim Tamari, Al-jabal dhid Al-bahar: Ishkaliat al-hadathah al-Phalastiniah [Mountain against the s (...)
  • 9 Kamal Mo'ed, “A Memorable Educator from Palestine: Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi 1896-1951”, Jerusalem Qua (...)
  • 10 ‘Anbara Salam al-Khalidi, Jawlah fi al dhikrayat bayn lubnan wa filastin [Memoirs of Lebanon and Pa (...)

8Jerusalem had a central and influential role in this modernization process. From the middle of the 19th century, it belonged administratively directly to Istanbul, the center of the Ottoman Empire. Since then, Jerusalem began to change and develop socially, economically and culturally at a particularly fast pace. Communities of Western missionaries arrived and established Western institutions such as schools and hospitals. In the last third of that century, the new Jerusalem elite, both Muslim and Christians, began to erect new neighborhoods in the West of Jerusalem and build luxurious houses. They conducted a Western lifestyle different from the life of the Arabs who lived within the walls of Jerusalem, including the architecture, the clothing, the food, the furniture, the parties, the nightclubs, and the cafes where intellectuals met. Within this social and cultural landscape, buying books and setting up libraries inside the houses became an integral part of modern culture.8 In her memoirs, 'Anabrah al-Khalidi wrote about the cultural life in her home in Jerusalem. 'Anbara's husband, Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi, member of an educated and influential Jerusalem elite family, was the director of the Arab Government College for Teacher Training in Jerusalem, which the British had established in 1919 – a year after the occupation of Palestine – and which was closed in 1948 due to the war.9 In Khalidi's house, Arab and British intellectuals regularly met and held intellectual discussions on a variety of topics. Among other things, they discussed buying, writing, and reading new books on literary and intellectual topics.10

  • 11 Nur Masalha, Palestine Across Millennia: A History of literacy, Learning and Educational Revolution (...)
  • 12 Al-'Arif, Al tarikh al mufasal lilquds [The Detailed History of Jerusalem], Vol. 1, Jerusalem, Al- (...)
  • 13 Ibid., p. 452.

9Discussions about books in Jerusalem took place not only in houses but also in cafés where educated people from Palestine and abroad met and conducted discussions and polemics on politics, society, culture, literature, and poetry. Two coffeehouses of exceptional importance were 'Maqha al Mukhtar' (Mukhtars Café), in the area of the Hebron Gate (Bab al-Khalil), which was later changed by Khalil Al Sakakini to 'Maqha Al Sa'aleeq' (Vagabond Cafe). The second cafe was 'Piccadilly Café' on Mamilla Street.11 'Arif al-'Arif, a Jerusalemite historian and a senior official in the British Mandate government, wrote that in Jerusalem there were dozens of public family libraries that served scholars as well as the educated public, and had tens of thousands of books, periodicals and rare manuscripts.12 The most important and rich private libraries were al-Khalidiyya, al-Fakhriyyah, and al-Budiri. Al-'Arif, being a witness to that time, pointed out that during the Mandate period, Palestinian society, especially urban society, became a society of reading and acquiring knowledge through books, newspapers, and magazines. Jerusalem, of course, was the center of the reading culture. “I am not exaggerating when I say that there is no important book that is published in the Arab region without being on the shelves of those libraries, especially if it was written or translated into a living modern language”, wrote al-'A'rif.13

  • 14 N. Masalha op. cit., p. 20.
  • 15 R. Khalidi, op. cit., p. 56-60; Al-'Arif, op. cit., p. 452.

10In conclusion, Palestinian society, especially in Jerusalem, underwent a deep process of modernization during the Mandate period, one of the manifestations of which was the adoption and expansion of a culture of reading and the establishment of public and private libraries, especially within the homes of the elite.14 The process of cultural modernization, which was accelerated in the thirties and forties, was impressive compared to other Arab countries and was in the midst of strengthening and expanding when it was shattered by the war in 1948.15

Confiscation of the Palestinian books and libraries in 1948

  • 16 The Haganah was the largest and central military organization of the Jewish Yishuv and the Zionist (...)

11In May 1948, in the wake of the war which led to the creation of the State of Israel, the Haganah Headquarters16 announced its responsibility for the abandoned property from Arabs fleeing Palestine. It published an announcement in the newspapers in this regard.

  • 17 Abandoned Arab property at the disposal of the Haganah”, Haaretz, 10/5/1948, p. 4.

[...] All the abandoned property found in the abandoned and occupied Arab settlements is at the disposal and responsibility of the Haganah and it will hand it over to the authorized institutions in accordance with the laws. Hebrew warrior, when you enter an occupied or abandoned Arab place do not take with you abandoned properties, do not be tempted to rob them. Prevent yourself from obscene temptations. Stay away from the looting that corrupts the individual and the collective. Remember that you are a protector of peace and you are commanded to preserve your honor not only during war but also after it. Remember that there is only one difference between the honor of the warrior and the disgrace of the robber.17

  • 18 Sarah Lazar, Yesrael ba'asor ha rishon [Israel in the first decade], Raanana, the open University, (...)
  • 19 Tom Segev, 1949, Hayisrailim harishonim [1949, The First Israelis], Jerusalem, Keter, 1984. p. 60-6 (...)

12The issue of managing the vast abandoned property caused serious controversy and preoccupied the leadership of the new state.18 Finally Ben-Gurion established in September 1948 the “Military Rule”. It addressed the task of managing the daily lives of the Arabs who had remained in the territory of the state, to guard the abandoned property and prevent its looting. The authorities however did not want to encourage Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, land, and property.19

  • 20 Rona Sela, Limo'aynat al-Jumhor: al-Filastinion fi al-archifat al-israelyyah [Made Public: Palestin (...)
  • 21 Gish Amit, Ex-Libris: Historya shil gezil, shemur vi nikhos basifriyah ha leumit bi yerushalaim [Ex (...)
  • 22 Ibid., p. 80.

13The Palestinian property that was, at this moment, expropriated or even looted, included books, photo albums and written or photographed archives that were found in houses and in photography shops.20 About 30 000 books and manuscripts were collected from the abandoned Palestinian homes in West Jerusalem by the soldiers of the Israeli army and the employees of the National Library (N.L.) of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Another 40 000 books were collected during the war and after it from the cities of Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias, Nazareth, Safad and Ramlah. Most of the books were educational books collected from schools and were kept in special warehouses in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth and Jerusalem.21 In 1957, 26 315 books were shredded according to the decision of the custodian, Dov Shafrir, who had written that “these books are not suitable for use in the Arab schools in Israel and because some of them contain material against the state and their distribution […] may cause damage to the state”.22

  • 23 Hana Abu Hana, in Benny Brunner, The great book Robbery, Documentary Film, 2012: https://www.youtub (...)
  • 24 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 113.
  • 25 Ilan Pappé, Al-Tathir al-'Irqi fi Filastin [Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine], Beirut, Institute for P (...)

14Many of the books collected from schools and educational institutions were sold back to Arab schools or offered for sale to the public at auctions in major cities after their contents had been carefully examined. The Palestinian writer and poet Hana Abu Hana heard about a public book sale in Haifa, then went and bought several books. One of them had belonged to his friend, who was then teaching at the American University of Beirut, Muhammad Youssef Negim.23 The sale of the books brought the state coffers the equivalent of about $60,000 in today’s value.24 Yet, the most important and valuable private books and libraries collected were from the West Jerusalem neighborhoods where the Palestinian elite lived.25 There were cases where the army prisoners were used for this task as Muhammad Batrawi (1928-2011), a refugee from Asdud (Ashdod after 1948), testified to in Benny Brunner's documentary:

  • 26 Muhammad Batrawi, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

They took us to Ramlah for a few days, we went from house to house, took things and loaded them onto trucks, some of the things were books. They asked us to take the books separately. In some houses we found 100 books, in some 10 books [...].26

  • 27 Visiting enemy territory in Jerusalem”, Haaretz, 3/6/1948, p. 2.

15In June 1948, Haaretz newspaper journalist, R. Azaria entered the Arab neighborhoods in West Jerusalem days after they had been abandoned and described in a detailed article the wealth and splendor of the homes of the Arabs who were physicians, lawyers, officials of the mandate government, and intellectuals. Azaria described the large houses and noted that every house he entered had an impressive library. “The libraries in these houses contain a lot of books in German, French, English and of course in Arabic. Reproduction albums of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci are in many houses”27. According to the National Library (N.L.) and to the custodian, the collection of books from the West Jerusalem neighborhoods was done with the intention of preserving and saving these books and libraries that were considered as cultural treasure. Shafrir described those intentions in a report of March 1949 on the collection of Arab books from West Jerusalem:

  • 28 ISA, GL-3/1429.

16Immediately after the occupation of Katamon and the neighborhoods close to it by the Haganah, the concern for the fate of the private and public book collections located in these neighborhoods arose in the hearts of many of the book people. Some of the university officials, as well as book lovers outside of it, proposed and demanded that the university's library take the books out of the occupied neighborhoods, a place where they were in a state of insecurity, and place them under its protection. Although saving the books and the intellectual property from loss and destruction was the immediate goal, we did not hide from the authorities our hope to find a way to transfer some of the books, and perhaps a large part of them, to the possession of the university when the time comes.28

The role of the National Library and the fate of the books of the Palestinians

  • 29 Giv'at Ram was originally part of the lands of the abandoned Palestinian village of Beit Lifta.

17Understanding role of the National Library in the conservation of the books of the Palestinians is a delicate matter. The National Library in Jerusalem, which was originally named “Midrash Abarbanel Library”, had been founded in 1892 at the initiative of the Russian Jewish physician Joseph Hazanovich (1844-1919). With the establishment of the Hebrew University in 1925, the library's name was changed to “The National and University Library”. In 1960, the new building to which the library moved on the Hebrew University campus in Giv'at Ram was inaugurated, where it remained until it has recently moved to a new location in Kaplan St. in Jerusalem.29

18Hazanovich's vision behind the establishment of the library was the redemption of the Hebrew book and the gathering of its exiles. Its founders wanted the library to embody the connection between the land and the diaspora. Others saw it as a renewal of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel. Immediately after the library was established, there were doubts and crises among its leaders. Some were critical of the Zionist movement and saw it as an institution that was supposed to embody the connection between the land and the diaspora. Others saw it as a clear expression of the renewal of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel. However, the library participated in the debate that was taking place around the question of the spiritual and cultural character of the land within the Zionist movement, mainly between supporters of Herzl and supporters of Ahad Ha'am, who had a great influence on the character of the library.

  • 30 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 25-30. The name was changed to “The Israeli National Library” in 2007.

19Ahad Ha'am opposed Herzl's view and saw it as a political vision devoid of any national-spiritual foundation, since according to Herzl’s view, the Jewish community in Land of Israel would constitute a cultural branch of Europe and not a place of Jewish culture.30 Ahad Ha'am opposed Herzl's political, Eurocentric model and proposed a model based on an institution for Jewish research and education far removed from political activity, an institution based on Jewish intellectual property for generations.

  • 31 Uri Cohen, Hahar vi hagiv'aa: Haoniversita ha ivrit biyrushalayim bitkofat trom ha'atzmaut vi rishi (...)

20Ahad Ha'am greatly influenced an association called “Brit Shalom” which was founded in 1925. Its members were well educated, opposed the Zionist-British colonial alliance and advocated the establishment of a binational Arab-Jewish state on the basis of full equality of rights. Among its prominent and active members were intellectuals such as Yehuda Magnes, the President of the Hebrew University, Gershom Scholem, the Kabbalah scholar, the philosophers Hugo Bergman and Martin Buber and the sociologist Arthur Ruppin (interestingly, no Arab was in the association). The influence of “Brit Shalom” on the political history of Zionism was minimal, but their influence on the role of the Hebrew University and the National Library as a center of culture, education, and research that serves the entire nation, far from political considerations, was decisive.31 How did the members of this association agree to collect the books from the homes of Palestinians and transfer them to the National Library?

  • 32 I. Pappé, op. cit., p. 111.

21The role of the N.L. in collecting the books of the Palestinian elite was crucial. In fact, the N.L. initiated and organized the book collection despite all the difficulties and dangers such as Arab snipers and shelling that were still active in the abandoned neighborhoods. The N.L. received information from the army about a large number of private Arab libraries, but sometimes many books were looted by civilians and soldiers before the library staff could arrive.32 Early in June 1948, Curt David Wormann, the director of the N.L. between 1947-1968, asked the Hebrew university management to grant the library a special status that would allow it to officially take care of the abandoned public and private libraries on the grounds that the library was the expert body capable of keeping those books until they were returned to their rightful owners, if they appeared.

  • 33 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 87-88.

22Wormann protested that the army and other public bodies wanted to appropriate the books.33 A few days later (26.7.1948), Wormann received a reply from Shlomo Shunami, who was responsible for book collection operations from the conquered territories, underlining the significant role of the Hebrew University and of the N.L. in collecting and appropriating the books:

  • 34 Ibid., p. 88.

To date, more than 12,000 books have been collected. A large part of the libraries of the Arab writers and scholars is now in a safe place. Several bags of books and periodicals whose value has not yet been ascertained are also in our hands. Most of the books originate from Katamon, [...] We found magnificent Arab Libraries in Musrara [...] The situation has still not calmed down, but I hope we can continue in the coming days as well [...] A few days ago the university allocated 2-3 more of its employees. This resulted in great productivity in the work in which recently only three of us have been engaged: Goldman, Eliyahu and me.34

  • 35 ISA, GL-1429/3.
  • 36 ISA, G-60/271.

23The books collected by Shunami and his partners belonged to individuals as well as institutions such as churches and schools. As written in the report of the N.L. from March 1949, most of them were in Arabic and some in English, Italian and German. The subjects of the books included Arabic and Muslim history and literature, Muslim law, copies of the Koran and its commentaries, literature translated from foreign languages, and philosophy35. The books of foreign Christian institutions were also collected. Wormann, the director of the library, consistently asked the military governor in Jerusalem to allow the collection of books from these institutions, and the military governor granted him permission. In his letter of January 16, 1949, Wormann informed the governor that, during two days, in January, the library staff had collected 1,000 books from the Swedish School in Jerusalem, and 500 books from the Church of St. Paul. The books were in Swedish, English, and Arabic on subjects of Christian theology and history of the region. Wormann informed the governor that the books had been transferred to the library's warehouses in the Terra Sancta College building.36 An article published in the Haaretz newspaper after the cessation of hostilities describes the role of the NL in such terms:

  • 37 "Abandoned libraries in the custody of the National Library", Haaretz, 22/4/1949, p. 5.

Since May 1948, the N.L. has saved from loss and destruction about 30,000 books in Jerusalem [....] The books are now kept under guardianship conditions by the N.L. and under the supervision of the custodian of the abandoned property. The final fate of the books will be determined at the end of the war by the government. In the meantime, the custodian allowed the N.L. to use the books under certain conditions, since the library staff had worked hard and had initiated saving the books. Most of the books are in the Arabic language and cover almost all types of Arabic literature.37

  • 38 ISA, GL-1429/3.

24The N.L. report from March 1949 included a partial list of book owners. The list included sixty names, mostly of educated people, and a few institutions.38 Among the important and rich private Arab libraries were the libraries of three of the most influential intellectuals in Palestinian society: Khalil al-Sakakini, Is'aaf al-Nashashibi, and Tawfiq Can'aan.

25Sakakini (1878-1953) was a progressive humanist educator who began his career at the end of the 19th century. He was very proud of his library, which was in his house in the Katamon neighborhood and included about 4,000 books, so that there were books in every corner of the house. It contained books in English and Arabic on subjects such as history, philosophy, education, and literature – prose and poetry. He made sure to order any new book that interested him and that was published in Palestine or abroad. His only son, Sari, who was studying law in the United States, sent him books on pedagogy, education, sociology, philosophy and more.

  • 39 For his progressive educational thought and his long-standing educational project, see: Kamal Mo'ed (...)

26He spent most of his time in his library, meeting with intellectuals, and had discussions on every subject, especially poetry and literature.39 Because of the war, Sakakini took his two daughters, Halla and Doumiya, to Cairo at the end of April 1948. Above all, he regretted and grieved over the loss of his books, and wrote a long and moving farewell letter to his books in which he expressed his concern about their fate as if he felt that they would be robbed:

  • 40 Akram Musallam, editor note to Yawmiyyat Khalil al-Sakakini; al-intidab wa as’ilat al-hawiyya, 1919 (...)

Goodbye, my library! Goodbye, House of Wisdom, Hall of Philosophers, Institute of Science, House of the Literary Committee. How many nights have I spent in you, reading and writing, the night is silent, and the people are sleeping [...] Goodbye, my books, my inestimably precious books of choice [...] I do not know what became of you after we left. Were you robbed? Were you burned? Were you respectfully transferred to a public or private library? Did you arrive to stores with your pages wrapping onions? [...] It is hard to say goodbye to you. You were my spiritual food, and I was and still am eager for this food. I clung to you day and night, and everyone who visited me found me diligently studying my books.40

27The story of Issaf al-Nashashibi's library was similar. Nashashibi (1882-1948) was a member of an elite Jerusalemite Muslim family, a writer, poet, and Arabic teacher at colleges in Jerusalem. His luxurious home was in the Sheikh Jarah neighborhood, and it had a rich and renowned library. Nashashibi's nephew, Nasser al-Din al-Nashashibi, a journalist and writer, greatly admired his uncle the writer and his unique library. He spoke about this in Brunner's documentary:

  • 41 Nasser al-Din al-Nashashibi, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

We left our house, we left everything in it, most of the furniture was looted, most of my books were looted. But that was nothing compared to the cultural treasure that was looted from my uncle Issaf's house, which had a rich library filled with ancient classical manuscripts, copies of the Quran and Hadith. Where did his books go? Who took them?41

  • 42 Ibid.
  • 43 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 104.

28In the same interview, Nasser al-Nashashibi said that most of his books had been in his uncle's library and that he visited the N.L. in 1968 and found one of his books, Makramiyyat, which he had received from its author, Omar Makram from Egypt, in 1945.42 Nasser tried to retrieve some of his books, so he offered Jewish scholars 5 Jordanian dinars for each book that they would be able to get out of the library, but they all refused.43

  • 44 S. Tamari, op. cit., p. 85-105.
  • 45 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 107.

29Tawfiq Can'aan (1882-1962), a renowned Palestinian physician and anthropologist in Jerusalem, ran a hospital for leprosy and was president of the Palestinian Medical Association since the early 1940s. Can'aan published dozens of books and articles in Arabic, English and German on politics, medicine, and Palestinian folklore. Between 1920 and 1939 he was secretary of 'The Palestine Oriental Society' (JPOS) and editor-in-chief of the journal Folklore of Palestine.44 Can'aan abandoned his home in the Musrara neighborhood in May 1948 and moved with his family to a house in the Latin Convent in East Jerusalem that was given to him by the Latin Patriarch.45 In his memoirs, Can'aan wrote about the abandonment of his home, and referred to the loss of his books:

  • 46 Tawfiq Can'aan, The Tawfiq Canaan Memoirs, part 2”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Autumn 2018, p. 140.

As our house was in the firing zone, we decided to move. The Greek Orthodox convent gave us one furnished room. We took a few things from home, hoping that we could soon return. But our house was completely lost with all our furniture, my beloved library, and several unpublished manuscripts. One of them was a book on the Palestine Arab woman […] A few days after we moved to the Greek Convent, our house caught fire. When I saw it at 8 p.m. my heart bled. I did not believe it, so I went to the Franciscan convent. Here the custodian led me, and I saw how the whole roof and upper story were in flames. Thus, I now had no house, no furniture, no car, and even the considerable sum of money I had left there was lost.46

Establishing the Palestinian book collection (AP) as a separate collection

  • 47 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 95.

30Establishing the Palestinian book collection (AP) as a separate collection would become a key moment in the policy of the N L. The Palestinian books were transferred to the N.L. in large sacks and most of them remained in warehouses until the early 1960s, when the work of cataloging them and placing them on the library shelves began. Of the 30,000 books that were transferred, about 6,000 were taken to the Institute of Oriental Studies, established in 1926, and to the Department of Oriental Studies, established in 1930, to be part of their research library.47 Some of the people who cataloged the books at the time were interviewed in Benny Bruner's documentary and spoke about their work, feelings, and insights. One of them was Aziz Shehadeh (1941-2013) from Nazareth, who studied law at the Hebrew University and worked in the book collection between 1963 and 1965. Shehadeh cataloged a large number of manuscripts in Arabic and saw the notes that the owners of the books had written on the pages:

  • 48 'Aziz Shehadeh, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

I remember flour sacks filled with books. The sacks were placed behind the reading room. We would receive dozens of sacks, sometimes even 100 sacks, and catalog them. I loved my work cataloging the books. There were books of religious commentary, and books of poetry by great poets like Al-Mutanabbi. It was clear to me that the owners of the books were aristocratic educated people.48

  • 49 G Amit, op. cit., p. 98-99.

31Sorting and cataloging part of the books began in 1948 but was slow and cumbersome, and took many years. According to Uri Palit, who worked at the N.L. from 1957 to 2001, the work of cataloging the books collected in the 1948 war became very slow after the 1967 war, when books from the occupied territories were transferred to the library.49 The books were sorted and cataloged by a running serial number with the owner's name indicated in agreed abbreviations, i.e. the first letters of the names of the Palestinian book owners in English. For example, 'Saka' (Sakakini) or 'Nasha' (Nashashibi), etc.

  • 50 The AP meant “Abandoned Property” but the term was changed to “Absentee Property” after the Absente (...)
  • 51 In 2011, I was working on my doctoral research on the educational thought of Khalil al-Sakakini and (...)
  • 52 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 87-88.

32In the 1960s, the library decided to change the system and indicate the 'AP' (Absentees property) stamp only for books in Arabic.50 Books in other languages were cataloged in the library and no trace of their origin remained. Apart from the 6,000 books transferred to the Institute of Oriental Studies, the N.L. catalog lists 5,787 books with the AP signature. To this day, these books are on separate, reserved shelves and cannot be viewed without special permission from the library management. The only way to consult these books is to search the AP book catalog and request the desired book for reference.51 Regarding the meaning and importance of the creation of the AP system, it is not known exactly who made the decision and for what reasons. One explanation for the creation of the previous system, with the abbreviations of the owners’ names, is that the state was willing to pay compensation to the book owners and therefore wrote their names on the inside cover. Another explanation is that the state intended to return the books to their Palestinian owners as promised by David Wormann, the director of the library, to the administration of the Hebrew University in June 1948.52

  • 53 Abandoned Arab property at the disposal of the Haganah”, Haaretz, 10/5/1948.

33The fact is that, already during the process of collecting the books, when a custodian was appointed for the abandoned Arab property, it was announced through the press that the intention was to return the books to their owners when the time came.53

  • 54 Uri Palit, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

34Librarian Uri Palit was convinced that the books were held temporarily with the intention of letting researchers and students use them, and that the N.L. used the owners’ abbreviations signature with the intention of returning them to their owners when they showed up. According to Palit, the books were not looted but were preserved and sheltered by the N.L. and the problem was that the owners of the books were no longer there and therefore there was no one to return them to.54 In any case, despite all intentions and statements regarding the return of the books, the library management decided, in its efforts to enrich the library, to keep the Palestinian books, most of which are books on ancient Arabic literature and poetry, as well as rare, classical manuscripts of great value. However, the clear meaning of establishing the AP mark was that at least since the early 1960s, Israel had decided to consider the results of the 1948 war as an irreversible reality and not to return the books, while effacing the identity of their owners. However, the establishment of the AP was considered a confirmation of Palestinian ownership of the books. In other words, the establishment of the AP achieved the opposite result and prevented the books from being assimilated into the huge library, thereby preventing them from being forgotten.

35Librarian 'Aziz Shehadeh expressed his view concerning the Nakba of books:

  • 55 'Aziz Shehadeh, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

I saw the Palestinian tragedy through these books. It was truly a terrible disaster. People loved their libraries and their books, read them, wrote notes on the pages, you see their handwriting. Indeed, the library did a good job, and I respect it, we helped preserve the books that are still there today. If it weren't for the National Library, the books would have disappeared. But at the same time, because the owners of the books are gone, Israel can return them to Nablus University or to Birzeit University.55

  • 56 Hillel Cohen, Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948–1967, Californi (...)

36One cannot put on the side the desire of some to eradicate the Palestinian culture in making the treasure of ancient books unavailable.56 By example, such a pattern of expropriation of Palestinian culture and narrative was visible in 1967, when Palestinians in Lebanon and the diaspora attempted to restore and preserve their heritage to the best of their ability by establishing research centers in Beirut such as the Center for Palestinian Studies and the Institute for Palestinian Studies. In September 1982, after the PLO left Lebanon, the Israeli army invaded these research centers and looted about 25,000 books along with a microfilm collection.

  • 57 The National Library is safe”, Haaretz, 19/7/1948.
  • 58 Amit Levi, Mizrah Hadash:mi oriantalizm girmani limizrahanut yisraelit [A New East: From German Ori (...)

37As we can see, regarding the books confiscated in 1948, the role of the N.L. and the Hebrew University in collecting and confiscating books was pivotal. Alongside the desire of some to erase Palestinian culture, the university at that time needed books to enrich and expand its library, thus making it the largest Jewish library in the world. It also wished to operate worthy research centers that would serve its researchers and students. At the forefront of those research centers was the Institute for Oriental Studies. In a statement to the Hebrew press in July 1948, Dr. Wormann reassured that the library was intact and had not been damaged by the fighting. Wormann expressed his concern for the future of the library, which had about half a million books in it, about a quarter of them in Hebrew. He also told journalists that the number of books would soon increase when two shipments of books, about 60,000 books, arrived from Czechoslovakia and Poland.57 As part of these efforts, the N.L. worked hard to bring books of Holocaust victims and books of Yemenite Jews, in addition to the Palestinians books. It is important to note in this context that by 1948, the Hebrew University had difficulty raising funds and was facing bankruptcy.58

  • 59 U. Cohen, op. cit., p. 11-12.

38Before 1948, the university operated according to the model of a 'dispersed university', meaning that most of its budget was based on donations from Jews from around the world, mainly from the United States, which resulted in a great deal of administrative and intellectual autonomy and lesser dependence on the state.59 It can be assumed that this status made it easy for the university and the library to collect and appropriate Palestinian books in 1948. It can be also assumed that in the first years after 1948 the library still operated in the spirit of a “Brit shalom” and preserved the books with the aim of returning them. Afterwards, as the state under Ben-Gurion's leadership took control of the university, the trend reversed, and the books were re-cataloged, according to the AP method.

  • 60 A. Levi, op. cit., p. 154-156.

39The research activities of the teachers and students of the Institute for Oriental Studies were naturally based on texts and manuscripts. The shortage of those texts and manuscripts was a problem for the Institute. One of the available and effective solutions was to appropriate the thousands of abandoned Palestinian books and manuscripts from Jerusalem and other cities, and transfer them to the Institute's library. At no stage did the Institute's staff address the moral aspect of appropriating the books and using them. They did not discuss the fate of the books if their owners would reappear and claim them. All that interested them was to use the books for the benefit of the advancement of the institute, whose students and teachers were granted free access to the AP book collection.60

Conclusion

40Since the wars of the 20th century, the act of confiscating, looting and destroying books, libraries, and spiritual treasures became commonplace. This occurred, for example, during World War II in Europe, and in the Iraq War in 2003. Therefore, the debate that accompanied this act was whether the Germans looted or saved books and libraries during World War II and did the Americans and their allies loot the libraries and museums of Baghdad, which contained the treasures of the history of humanity, or did they save them? In general, the invader presents the collection of books as a rescue and a moral act, while the invaded sees it as planned and deliberate looting whose main purpose is to overshadow the past and erase the culture of the conquered people.

  • 61 Magnes was ill at the time of collecting the books and died in October 1948, so he did not express (...)
  • 62 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 27-28.

41The central question that was examined in this study was this one: was the collection and appropriation of the books by the National Library, as a representative of the Hebrew University, a moral act of rescue and preservation or was it a looting? In other words, is the definition of the collection and appropriation of the books different from the definition of the takeover of other Palestinian property during and after the Nakba? In response to the question of the purpose of collecting and transferring Palestinian books to the shelves of the National Library, we received two answers from two groups: those (like Brunner, Nashashibi, Ghish, Batrawi, Sel'a and Raz) who argue that the act was unjustified looting and those who had participated in the collection, sorting and cataloging of those books (such as Wormann, Shunami, librarians Aziz Shehadeh, Uri Palit and Shlomo Shunami) who saw it as a wise and moral act by virtue of which the library saved this treasure from destruction. To the second group, we can add members of “Brit Shalom” who were faculty members at the Hebrew University at the time of the book collection and held positions such as Bergman and Gershom Scholem, who saw the library as a unique space that bridged cultures and therefore viewed the Arab books collection favorably.61 It seems that this vision of the members of “Brit Shalom” of one state for two peoples with equal rights is what explains and reconciles the contradiction between their agreement with the collection of Arab books and their opposition to the alliance between the Zionist movement and British colonialism. In a certain sense, they saw the collection of books not as a looting but as rescue and preservation, as an act that would help realize that vision of creating a common culture in this land.62

  • 63  For a comprehensive survey on the meaning and effect of the law, see: Walid Khalidi, All That Rema (...)

42In the perspective of cultural history, it is important to note that the status of the books went through a process of change in stages. At first, in 1948, the books were confiscated and were cataloged, using the abbreviations of the owners’ names. There were also statements, as we have seen, from the National Library staff and the custodian, that the books would be returned. Only during the 1960s, the owners’ abbreviations were effaced, and the library cataloged the books as AP, that is, Absentee Property. This gave them legal status of absentee’s property, according to the “Absentee Law” of March 14, 1950. According to this law, an Absentee was anyone who, between November 29, 1947, and September 1, 1948, was in any Arab country or in parts of Palestine not controlled by Israel. This included: Palestinians who fled to neighboring Arab countries, and even internal refugees (Palestinians who remained in Israel but were not in their original homes) who were considered absentees under the law. A Custodian of Absentee Property was the body appointed by the government and took control of absentee assets “in trust” but, in practice, transferred them to state use.63

  • 64 See: “UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and T (...)

43In the final stage, the state decided not to return the books, claiming that their owners had not appeared and also claiming that this was not a case of looting books but rather a collection of books whose owners were absent. The rules for the restitution of cultural property generally means the act of restoring or compensating for something that was lost, stolen, damaged or looted. The UNESCO definition of restitution made it very clear: “Restitution refers to the return of cultural property to its country of origin or former owners in cases of illicit appropriation”.64 The State of Israel has clearly ignored those rules.

44In final analysis, the main argument is that, seventy-seven years after the acts of the collection and appropriation of the books, it is clear that it was a typical colonial act of looting. There are a number of explanations for this claim. First, if the management of the National Library and the custodian of the abandoned property had kept their promises to return the books to their owners, as they had declared in the press and in documents and letters during the collection of the books, the result would have been different, and the library's action could have been praised.

45Those defending the National library could argue that the library could not return the books because their owners had not reappeared to this day. This argument does not stand. Some of the family members of the book owners returned and were not even allowed to see their books, as happened with Nasser Nashashibi, who requested his and his uncle Issaf's books, and Halla Sakakhini, who wanted to see and have some of her father's books returned. Moreover, if the library had intended to return the books, it would not have switched in the 1960s from the method of recording the book owner's initials on the cover to recording the AP signature in order to eliminate traces of the books and permanently sever them from their owners so that we will never know who they had belonged to.

  • 65 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 106.
  • 66 ISA, GL-5/1429.
  • 67 Ibid.

46The third point is that even if the owners of the books did not turn up, the library could, out of good will and a moral decision, have returned the books to one of the Palestinian Authority institutions after the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Authority would certainly not refuse to accept the books and transfer them to the library of one of the Palestinian universities in Nablus, Abu Dis or Bir Zeit, as suggested by Arab Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka, who said so in an interview with Gish Amit on 14.6.2006.65 In addition, instead of returning the books, the National Library continued until the end of the 1950s to correspond with the Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Education, J. L Binor, requesting the transfer of Arabic books from the Ministry's warehouses in Haifa and Jaffa to the National Library. Indeed, in September 1957 more than 140 important books on Arab culture and literature were transferred to the library under the reason of great benefit to students and researchers at the university.66 This file, ISA, GL-5/1429, contains 256 pages, all of which are correspondence between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Office of the Custodian of the Abandoned Properties regarding the fate of the books collected in 1948. In this file there is no indication of thinking about the possibility of returning the books (about 26,312 books) to any Palestinian persons or institutions. The only possibilities that were proposed and implemented were the sale of the books to the Arabs themselves and the sale of the books that are “not suitable for security reasons” to a contractor to grind and dispose of them.67

47For seventy-seven years, the books have been there, a living testimony to a painful historical episode that was forgotten as if it never happened. There were people at the Hebrew University and the N.L, as well as in government institutions, who knew about it, but life went on and the episode has sunk into the abyss of oblivion until in recent years, several researchers wrote about it and revealed it to the general public.

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Bibliographie

'Al-'Arif, Al tarikh al mufasal lilquds [The Detailed History of Jerusalem], Vol. 1, Al- Ma'arif Press, Jerusalem. 1999.

Amit Levi, Mizrah Hadash:mi oriantalizm girmani limizrahanut yisraelit [A New East: From German Orientalism to Israeli Orientalism], Jerusalem, Magnes, 2024.

Benny Brunner, The Great Book Looting, Documentary Film, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdtCrCsKlw0; consulted the 15/11/2025.

Gish Amit, Ex-Libris: Historya shil gezil, shemur vi nikhos basifriyah ha leumit bi yerushalaim [Ex-Libris: Chronicles of Theft, Preservation and Appropriating at the Jewish National Library], Jerusalem, Van Leer, 2014.

Nur Masalha, Palestine Across Millennia: A History of Literacy, Learning and Educational Revolutions, London, I.B. Tauris, 2022.

Rona Sela, Limo'aynat al-Jumhor: al-Filastinion fi al-archifat al-israelyyah [Made Public: Palestinians in Military Archives in Israel], Ramallah, MADAR, 2018.

Tom Segev, 1949, Hayisrailim harishonim [1949, The First Israelis], Jerusalem, Keter, 1984.

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Notes

1 This documentary film was of importance since all the people interviewed in it had a direct and personal connection to the collection or looting of the books and thus constitute a primary source. The problem of the reliability of any documentary film, has been taken into consideration.

2 Nabil Badran, Al-Ta'lim wa'l-tahdith fi'l mujtama' al-filastini fi 'ahd al-intidab [Education and modernization in Palestinian society in the Mandate], Beirut, Markaz al-abhath al-filastiniyah, 1969, p. 63-65.

3 Rashid Khalidi, Klov ha barzil: siphor maabkam shil ha-falastinim lamdinah [The Iron Cage: The story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood], Jerusalem, Van Leer, 2010, p. 56.

4 Mustafa Kabha, “Ha hivrah ha'aravit-falastinit bitkofat hamandat [Arab-Palestinian Society during the British Mandate]”, in A. Kaufman, M. Kabha, L. Osatsky, L. Ha hivrah ha aravit bi Yisrael [Arab Society in Israel], 2007, The Open University, Ra'anana. 2007, p. 225-230.

5 Ami Ayalon, Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy 1900-1948, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2004, p. 81-84.

6 Israel State Archive (ISA), 'National Library file', F-15/327.

7 A. Ayalon, op. cit., p. 90.

8 Salim Tamari, Al-jabal dhid Al-bahar: Ishkaliat al-hadathah al-Phalastiniah [Mountain against the sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture], Birzeit University, 2019, p. 12-15. [Arabic].

9 Kamal Mo'ed, “A Memorable Educator from Palestine: Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi 1896-1951”, Jerusalem Quarterly, spring 2022, Issue 89, p. 78-87.

10 ‘Anbara Salam al-Khalidi, Jawlah fi al dhikrayat bayn lubnan wa filastin [Memoirs of Lebanon and Palestine], Beirut, Dar al-Nahar, 1978, p. 197-198. [Arabic].

11 Nur Masalha, Palestine Across Millennia: A History of literacy, Learning and Educational Revolutions, London, I.B. Tauris, 2022, p. 248.

12 Al-'Arif, Al tarikh al mufasal lilquds [The Detailed History of Jerusalem], Vol. 1, Jerusalem, Al- Ma'arif Press, 1999, p. 449. [Arabic]

13 Ibid., p. 452.

14 N. Masalha op. cit., p. 20.

15 R. Khalidi, op. cit., p. 56-60; Al-'Arif, op. cit., p. 452.

16 The Haganah was the largest and central military organization of the Jewish Yishuv and the Zionist movement in Palestine during the British Mandate, between 1920 and 1948, and was the foundation for the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces with the establishment of the state.

17 Abandoned Arab property at the disposal of the Haganah”, Haaretz, 10/5/1948, p. 4.

18 Sarah Lazar, Yesrael ba'asor ha rishon [Israel in the first decade], Raanana, the open University, 2006, p. 14-20.

19 Tom Segev, 1949, Hayisrailim harishonim [1949, The First Israelis], Jerusalem, Keter, 1984. p. 60-62.

20 Rona Sela, Limo'aynat al-Jumhor: al-Filastinion fi al-archifat al-israelyyah [Made Public: Palestinians in Military Archives in Israel], Ramallah, MADAR, 2018, p. 17-18.

21 Gish Amit, Ex-Libris: Historya shil gezil, shemur vi nikhos basifriyah ha leumit bi yerushalaim [Ex-Libris: Chronicles of Theft, Preservation and Appropriation at the Jewish National Library], Jerusalem, Van Leer, 2014, p. 79-80.

22 Ibid., p. 80.

23 Hana Abu Hana, in Benny Brunner, The great book Robbery, Documentary Film, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdtCrCsKlw0; consulted the 11/11/2025.

24 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 113.

25 Ilan Pappé, Al-Tathir al-'Irqi fi Filastin [Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine], Beirut, Institute for Palestine Studies, 2007, p. 9-11.

26 Muhammad Batrawi, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

27 Visiting enemy territory in Jerusalem”, Haaretz, 3/6/1948, p. 2.

28 ISA, GL-3/1429.

29 Giv'at Ram was originally part of the lands of the abandoned Palestinian village of Beit Lifta.

30 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 25-30. The name was changed to “The Israeli National Library” in 2007.

31 Uri Cohen, Hahar vi hagiv'aa: Haoniversita ha ivrit biyrushalayim bitkofat trom ha'atzmaut vi rishit hamdinah [The Mountain and the Hill: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the pre-independence and early statehood period], Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 2006. p. 112-135.

32 I. Pappé, op. cit., p. 111.

33 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 87-88.

34 Ibid., p. 88.

35 ISA, GL-1429/3.

36 ISA, G-60/271.

37 "Abandoned libraries in the custody of the National Library", Haaretz, 22/4/1949, p. 5.

38 ISA, GL-1429/3.

39 For his progressive educational thought and his long-standing educational project, see: Kamal Mo'ed, Bin adam im yirtzi ha il: Biografia hinukhit shil Khalil al-sakakini 1878-1953 [A Human Being, God Willing: Khalil al-Sakakini, An Educational Biography 1878-1953], Ben-Gurion University Research Institute, Sede Boker, 2018; N. Masalha, op. cit., p. 238-241.

40 Akram Musallam, editor note to Yawmiyyat Khalil al-Sakakini; al-intidab wa as’ilat al-hawiyya, 1919-1922 [Khalil al- Sakakini Diaries], Ramallah, Muassasat al-Dirasat al-Maqdisiyyah, 2010, Vol. 8, p. 308.

41 Nasser al-Din al-Nashashibi, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

42 Ibid.

43 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 104.

44 S. Tamari, op. cit., p. 85-105.

45 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 107.

46 Tawfiq Can'aan, The Tawfiq Canaan Memoirs, part 2”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Autumn 2018, p. 140.

47 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 95.

48 'Aziz Shehadeh, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

49 G Amit, op. cit., p. 98-99.

50 The AP meant “Abandoned Property” but the term was changed to “Absentee Property” after the Absentees’ Property Law (14/3/1950), However, the term “abandoned property” remains the more commonly used name to this day because it more accurately described the facts. To the meaning of this law, see note 63.

51 In 2011, I was working on my doctoral research on the educational thought of Khalil al-Sakakini and I had to see the books he had and know what areas interested him, what notes he wrote on the pages of the books, etc. But all my attempts with the library management to get access to the AP shelves failed, claiming that it was a section closed to public review and that I could only browse the catalog by the book's title and request it. The problem was that there is no way to know who this book had belonged to.

52 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 87-88.

53 Abandoned Arab property at the disposal of the Haganah”, Haaretz, 10/5/1948.

54 Uri Palit, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

55 'Aziz Shehadeh, in B. Brunner, The great book Robbery.

56 Hillel Cohen, Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948–1967, California, University of California Press. 2010; Majid Al Haj, Education among Indigenous Palestinians in Israel: Inequality, Cultural Hegemony and Social Change, Albany, SUNY Press, 2024.

57 The National Library is safe”, Haaretz, 19/7/1948.

58 Amit Levi, Mizrah Hadash:mi oriantalizm girmani limizrahanut yisraelit [A New East: From German Orientalism to Israeli Orientalism], Jerusalem, Magnes, 2024, p. 152.

59 U. Cohen, op. cit., p. 11-12.

60 A. Levi, op. cit., p. 154-156.

61 Magnes was ill at the time of collecting the books and died in October 1948, so he did not express a position on the matter.

62 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 27-28.

63  For a comprehensive survey on the meaning and effect of the law, see: Walid Khalidi, All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Beirut, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992; I. Pappé, op. cit.

64 See: “UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property”, 14/11/1970: https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/convention-means-prohibiting-and-preventing-illicit-import-export-and-transfer-ownership-cultural; consulted the 15/11/2025.

65 G. Amit, op. cit., p. 106.

66 ISA, GL-5/1429.

67 Ibid.

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Kamal Mo'ed, « Confiscation and management of the Palestinian Libraries during and after 1948: rescue or looting? »Revue d’histoire culturelle [En ligne], 11 | 2025, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2025, consulté le 10 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rhc/16558 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15fd9

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Auteur

Kamal Mo'ed

Open University and Sakhnin Academic College

Dr. Kamal Mo'ed completed his doctorate in 2013 at Tel Aviv University in 'History and Philosophy of Education'. His field of research is Palestinian Arab education during the British Mandate in Palestine. Dr. Mo'ed published several articles in English and Hebrew on the subject of education in Palestinian society. He also published a book, in Hebrew, at the Research Center of Ben Gurion University about the Palestinian educator and intellectual Khalil al Sakakini. 'A Human Being, God Willing: Educational Biography of Khalil Al Sakakhini 1878-1953' (2018). Dr. Mo'ed is a senior lecturer at the Academic College for Teacher Training in Sakhnin and also at the Open University in Israel.

K71966@gmail.com

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