The Jerusalem House for Palestinian Studies and Research held a symposium entitled Intellectuals and the Repercussions of the War on Gaza, at the headquarters of the Struggle Front, which dealt with the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip, in which historian A. Hossam Abu Al-Nasr, Chairman of the Jerusalem House Council, opened the session with a detailed presentation on the targeting of intellectual institutions, including the House of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, from which three members of the Board of Directors were martyred, Ayed Abu Jabab, Ramzi Hamouda, and Iyad Ammar, and the destruction of the archive of the institution that has been operating for 20 years in Gaza, in addition to the destruction of all the main libraries, including the library of the Palestinian Planning Center, the central archive of the municipality, and university libraries, as well as Al-Omari Library (Al-Zahir Baybars), and Al-Abbas Library. He added that we met to think and develop visions for a way out of the national impasse. He a
dded that the Gaza problem is not immediate and momentary, but rather a suffering that will continue for many years, and we must address all the problems that emerged from the aggression against it. He referred the floor to the head of the National Library, Dr. Issa Qaraqe, who spoke about targeting Palestinian archives, and talked about the most important books that dealt with this subject, including Israeli historians, who confirmed the looting of the research center in Beirut, property and documents, and their transfer to Hebrew universities. Qaraqe expressed his dissatisfaction with the role of UNESCO and the failure to defend the sites. Archaeological, heritage and cultural sites, targeting more than 200 historical sites, and gave examples of targeting libraries in Iraq and the Arab countries, and this brutality that targeted thought and culture. He demanded that there be rapid action to save what can be saved and restore cultural life. He considered that there must be rapid action by the Palestinian gov
ernment to develop future and distant policies. To save culture, he called on institutions to digitize and archive their records to protect them from extinction.

While the novelist Dr. Rula Ghanem discussed the living testimonies and writings of poets and novelists, including the poet Maryam Gosh,

the critic Dr. Abdul Rahim Al-Habil, the writer Alaa Qatrawi, the writer Nahed Zaqout, and the writer Nasser Atallah, as well as testimonies of male and female writers who were martyred.

Writer Abdul Ghani Salama touched on the role of the intellectual in confronting the Israeli narratives, and what is happening now is similar to the Nakba, but despite the loss, dispersion and displacement, there is a re-crystallization of the Palestinian national cultural identity. He added that during the first Nakba we suffered from the loss of political identity, but in the second we regained the initiative to crystallize it, but even This is threatened by the danger of continued division, and he concluded that we need an art
istic, theatrical, intellectual and cultural phenomenon that embodies and conveys once again this immediate and ongoing suffering.

While Dr. Al-Mutawakkil Taha discussed the narrative of Israeli propaganda – the 7th of October, the narrative of the Nakba, struggle, resistance and independence, and rational and political calculations, he considered that any maneuver outside of coordination and consensus is a disaster, and that we are not facing a philosophical debate based on logic and truth, but rather facing burning, destruction and annihilation against the Palestinian people. He added, ‘We are facing a tragic event and a people bleeding in front of the world.’

Taha stressed that the role of the Arab intellectual has been fractured, and a large part of them seem to be independent of what is happening, which makes the intellectual, intentionally or unintentionally, a subjugation of the institution to which he belongs, playing a cosmetic role and leaving a hurtful void.

Abu Al-Nasr opened the door to the ma
in comments, in which the writer Muhammad Al-Beiruti, Dr. Muhammad Abu Hamid, the writer Alian Al-Hindi, the thinker Uri Davis, A. Fawaz Salama, and Dr. Mahmoud Fatafta spoke, and they agreed on the necessity of continuing thinking and gathering to get out of this crisis and not Gaza is left alone to face its fate, and the event is huge and beyond imagination

Source: Maan News Agency