Gaza Bookshop To Reopen Following Fundraising Appeal

A Gaza bookshop that was destroyed in 2021 has plans to reopen following an appeal publicised by Books2Door, a Midlands-based business in the UK. The online book shop helped to raise an impressive amount of funds and book donations in a global online campaign.

The Samir Mansour Shop

Attacks in May of 2021 demolished the two-story Samir Mansour shop, and saw the stock of approximately 100,000 books destroyed. It was a much-loved and well-known place where many gathered, and offered a selection of English books, notably a large number of children’s books old and new. Human rights site 3DC explains:

“It wasn’t just the destruction of a building of books. Samir’s bookstore was much more than that. It was a place for Palestinian children to hang out, drink tea, read, learn and socialise. It was a community centre, and a place of positivity and hope in a besieged Gaza strip, ripped apart by war. It allowed a young population imprisoned by an endless Israeli blockade, to escape to other worlds and lose themselves, for a while at least, in a literary elsewhere.”

The fundraising campaign was co-founded by human rights lawyer Mahvish Rukhsana, with East-Midlands bookshop owner Abdul Thadha quickly getting on board. Mr Thadha, who owns Books2Door donated 1,000 books, and helped to spread news of the campaign. As reported by the BBC, Mr Thadha stated:

“When I saw what had happened to the Mansour shop, my heart sank. This business is 21 years old, it is a community, it is a library it is where children in Gaza were getting their English literature books from. I thought, ‘I have a business, I have children’s books, this is something we can help with’.”

Communities coming together

With more than 150,000 books donated by over 70 UK book drives to Samir Mansour’s bookshop, and $250,000 raised by 5,000 people, the campaign has resonated with global communities who have offered practical help as well as solidarity with Palestine. Notable comments from the crowdfunding campaign include authors and individuals who urge people to have the conversation about the rebuilding of Gaza following the continued erasure of culture.

The British Shalom-Salaam Trust sent their heartfelt support for the bookshop campaign and people of Gaza, taking a stance of allyship:

“The British Shalom-Salaam Trust is a tiny, London-based Jewish charity supporting projects across the entirety of Israel/Palestine. We do not usually fund individuals, but the destruction of Samir Mansour’s bookstore seemed to us to represent something much bigger: book-burning in any situation has terrible resonances. We are sending a message to Samir and to the world that that there are Jews who totally reject Israel’s occupation, discrimination, oppression, land-theft and violence against Palestinians. We hope one day to be able to visit Samir’s new bookshop, and to celebrate a just and sustainable peace, providing equality, prosperity and security to all the inhabitants of Israel/Palestine.”

The new bookshop has now been rebuilt, and is bigger than the previous one at almost three times the size. It will also be a library, and has overcome blockades attempting to prevent the donated books reaching Gaza, as documented by Mahvish Rukhsana on social media.

Last May, Gaza’s largest bookshop was bombed. Despite an international blockade— today, the first of 3 shipments of books arrived safely. The new library will be 3X larger & will house 100,000+ books that poured in from around the world. Thank you to all who made this happen. pic.twitter.com/9PO7I94LDN

— Mahvish Rukhsana (@MissMRukhsana) January 16, 2022

Speaking of his journey to the BBC, Samir Mansour said:

“The day my bookshop was destroyed, I felt alone, but I found that there was great humanity in people to stand by me. I thank everyone who helped bring my library back to life. I feel so happy to be able to reopen it.”

Also by Michelle Sciarrotta: