Due to Israel siege, only local publications on display at Gaza Book Fair

Palestinian students visit the Rashad Al Shawwa Cultural Center during “Gazzetu Hashim” book fair, which was opened in despite of limited conditions due to Israeli blockade, in Gaza City, Gaza on 14 April 2019 [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency]

Only local publishers could take part in the ongoing Book Fair being held in Gaza City, Safa news agency reported, stating that there are only 20,000 titles compared to previous fairs where there were hundreds of thousands of books.

The last book fair organised in Gaza took place prior to 2014 Israeli offensive, when hundreds of thousands of books were put on shelves for readers and buyers in the besieged enclave.

Coordinator of the book fair Mohammad Al-Kahlout said that its mission is to prove that the Palestinian people, mainly those in Gaza, love life and are creative in spite of the siege and the hardships they face.

Visitor Raghad Farana said that she did not find the books she has been wanting for months.

Gaza has been under a 12-year strict Israeli siege which affects residents’ purchasing power and has raised unemployment rates to the highest in the world.

READ: Israel bans Gaza Christians from going to Jerusalem, Bethlehem for Easter

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.