Post date: Jan 20, 2013 4:8:51 PM
A new documentary named 'The Great Book Robbery' sheds light on a dispute over books taken by Israel's National Library from deserted Palestinian homes in 1948. Palestinians say Israel looted their cultural heritage while many in Israel say the books were saved.
BENNY BRUNNER, XELA FILMS AND 2911 FOUNDATION) - Israel's founding in a 1948 war is seen by Palestinians as "the Nakba" or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced to leave their homes.
Now, a new documentary named 'The Great Book Robbery' highlights a less known aspect of the war and its implications: the loss of thousands of books, which the librarians of Israel's National Library took from deserted Arab homes amid the fighting.Screened in Tel Aviv and Ramallah this month, the documentary has generated strong reactions from both sides of the conflict: Palestinians say Israel looted their cultural heritage in 1948 while many in Israel say the books were saved.
Film director Benny Brunner, an Israeli who lives in Amsterdam and attended the film premier in Tel Aviv, explained his reasons for making the controversial film.
"Well, I covered the Israeli-Palestinian story, or better to call it the Israeli... the injustice that has been done to the Palestinians, for many years now. And my motivation is simply that I find it a worthwhile story to tell. I think to be true to ourselves, to be on the right side of history, as some people like to say, we have to admit our part in creating a tragedy of another people. Basically that's what motivates me," Brunner told Reuters.
Brunner says he is aware the film may generate some hostile reactions, having already been called a 'charlatan' by one audience member in Tel Aviv.
"The first question during the Q&A (after a screening in Tel Aviv), somebody stood up and he didn't ask a question, he made a long statement and he said that 'this is the worst documentary I ever saw, you are a charlatan, it wasn't a robbery, they saved the books and it's a shame that the cinematheque gave you the platform to show the film'."
But he adds that others at the same screening were more positive.
"There were people who came to me, shook my hands and acknowledged the great work that I did," he said.
Ramallah's Sakakini centre opened its doors to dozens of Palestinians last week for the screening of the documentary. Palestinian Culture Minister Seham Barghouti, was among them.
Asked why there was never an official Palestinian request to return the books, Barghouti said that in recent years, Palestinians had struggled to retain a sense of identity, but that it may now be time to put that request through.
"In the past, we were struggling to transform from refugees to a Palestinian nation, to a nation that has rights - the struggle was to prove your identity. So now, this is the right time, especially after getting the UNESCO membership and an observer state status (at the United Nations) we have more opportunity and we should not let it go," Barghouti said.
Ramallah resident, Najwa Najjar, said the books represented more than just Palestinian culture to many viewers.
"Just from Jerusalem there were 30,000 books, so in all of Palestine how much culture and how great it was and how many books were lost. It is really the soul of the people. If you don't have culture, books and literature, how will you build a country?" she said.
The screening in Tel Aviv, drew a thinner crowd, with many Israelis voicing criticism that the film had failed to highlight the Israeli struggle during the 1948 war, and the risks that were taken by librarians in what was seen as a humanitarian effort to preserve history by saving the books.
"I think it was very frustrating to hear what all the people said about all the robbery of the books because they didn't mention at all that it was war, and the war waged by the Arabs that wanted to conquer Israel and to exterminate all the Jews in it. This... nobody talk about it. So what the Jews did, just it was a humanitarian act to take all the books... and not that people just came and robbed - a robbery by private people. It was the National Library that took them and kept them and made a list of all of them," said Israeli Hadassa Mor after viewing the documentary.
Israel's National Library spokesperson declined to comment.
The Israeli Custodian of Absentee property, who is in charge of the collection, said in a written message that approximately 8,000 books were catalogued and accessible to the public at Israel's National Library. The statement added that the library had the literary expertise to store and keep the books, which could be given back, according to regulations stated by law.