On the anniversary of the World Archives Day on 09 June, launched by UNESCO and the International Council on Archives twelve years ago and celebrated by countries around the world; and in the wake of the 57th anniversary of the 1967 setback; and the 76th anniversary of the first Palestinian Nakba in 1948; and eight months after the genocidal war in Gaza - which witnessed the continued systematic destruction of historical, social and cultural documents, archives and possessions of the Palestinian people – there is an urgent need to preserve not only our documents and archives using the latest digital means but also to create our historical sources. This is what prompted the International Council on Archives (ICA) to choose the meaningful title ‘We are the Archive’ in 2022 celebration, and the Arab Heritage Centre, which is part of the Sharjah Heritage Institute, to hold a seminar on the World Archives Day, under the theme: ‘Archives are you’.
Yes, we are the archives, we are the ones who build/establish our archives, then actualise and preserve them. We are the audio-visual archives that walk on two legs, see with two eyes, and hear with two ears. We are the archives of the people and what they experience daily. We are the social history.
We are eyewitnesses to the continuous ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since 1947, and to the looting and theft of tens of thousands of books, newspapers, magazines, civil records, thousands of films, audio recordings, maps, and millions of photographs, which have been kept in Israeli archives since 1948.
We are witnesses to our setback of June 1967.
We are witnesses to the ongoing aggression against Gaza in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2021, 2022, and the genocidal war since October 2023.
We are witnesses to massacre after massacre, killings, kidnappings, assassinations, arrests, house demolitions, land confiscation, and the suffocation of all the elements of life throughout the land of Palestine.
We are witnesses to the killing and wounding of more than one hundred and twenty thousand Palestinians, including twelve thousand children in the Gaza Strip. We are witnesses to the killing of about four children every hour, and witnesses to seventeen thousand children living with either only one parent or no parents at all, and ten thousand children losing one of their limbs every day.
We are witnesses to the bombing of shelters, residential towers, and homes over the heads of their inhabitants.
We are witnesses to the burning of refugee camps in Rafah and the displacement of nearly one million people from Rafah.
We are witnesses to the war of starvation and water deprivation; to the destruction, looting and burning of Gaza’s agricultural lands and products, its industrial facilities, its medical facilities, and its old port.
We are witnesses to the destruction of Gaza’s museums and cultural heritage sites: the Qarara Cultural Museum, the Hakawi Theatre Association, the Arts and Crafts Village, the Zawiya Historic Market, the Al-Sakka Archaeological House/Qasr Al-Sakka, the Shorouk Library, the Anem Library, the Samir Mansour Library, the Nahda Library, the Lubad Library, the Orthodox Cultural Centre, the Milad Society in the Jabalia Camp, and the Arab Social Cultural Centre in Tel al-Hawa.
We are witnesses to the destruction and execution of thousands of historical documents in the ‘Central Archive’ building at the Gaza Municipality headquarters and the library of the ‘Arab Social Cultural Centre’ in Tel Hawa.
We are witnesses to the destruction and ‘execution’ of thousands of historical documents in the Central Archives building at the Gaza Municipality headquarters, the library at Rashad Shawa Cultural Centre, the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library, the Israa University Library, and the National Museum.
We are witnesses to the destruction of Gaza’s historical monuments: the Pasha’s Palace, the Qaysariya Market, the Great Omari Mosque, the Sayyid Hashim Mosque, and the Sultan Abdul Hamid Sabeel in the Daraj neighbourhood; to the bombing and destruction of Al-Azhar University and the Islamic University; to the destruction of the Abnauna Society Centre for Development and the Gaza Culture and Arts Centre; to the bombing and destruction of the park and the memorial of the Unknown Soldier in the Rimal neighbourhood; to the destruction of the third oldest church in the world, the Saint Porphyrios Church, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood; and to the destruction of the park and the memorial of the Unknown Soldier.
We are the witnesses to the bombing of the Akkad Museum in Khan Younis and the Jabalia Mosque.
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In the face of the destruction, theft and falsification of Palestinian archives, which contain hundreds of thousands of historical documents, and in an attempt to bridge the gap between those who made and those who wrote history, accounts by eyewitness, both women and men who lived through historical events – in addition to manuscripts and written documents kept in specialised centres, individual archives and historical objects that must be preserved - become a very important source of history and the creation of historical sources. Historians deal with these sources in the same way they deal with written documents, and produce books, documents, and various educational, cultural, and artistic tools from them. It is our responsibility as individuals and institutions to preserve these accounts and documents.
We are the living archives that do not die, we are the ones who made our history with our blood, and it is time for us to document our past and present ourselves and preserve our collective national memory.