Gaza’s bookstores struggle
With the purchasing power of Gazans on the skids, people are reading less, and some libraries and book shops are barely scraping by and others are closing down.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Dust has covered the shelves that were once home to thousands of books in the Hashemite Library on Al-Jalaa Street in central Gaza City. Readers have stopped visiting the library, one of the oldest in the Gaza Strip. This library, which housed the work of hundreds of Palestinian and Arab writers and poets since its establishment in 1942, currently lacks visitors. The writers and the library eventually grew apart, and those who do visit only do so occasionally. The library’s owner and manager, Salama Abu Shaaban, reflects on the era when her establishment was frequented as a “sweet memory.”
The Hashemite Library remained a beacon of knowledge and a destination for readers and intellectuals until 2000, when the number of readers started to dwindle, given the tough economic situation in the Strip.
Abu Shaaban told Al-Monitor, “My father was the first to lend books in the Gaza Strip at a symbolic price. He encouraged reading, especially for kids, and he lent them books and gave them special prizes, a totally personal initiative. But this has changed. We no longer sell local and Egyptian magazines and papers delivered to us, and rarely does anyone pass by to buy a book.”
In the 1950s, the Hashemite Library was commissioned to sell newspapers and books from prominent Egyptian publishing and distribution houses. It was also a space for writers and intellectuals to meet. However, the Internet’s invasion and the poverty of Gaza Strip’s inhabitants have inhibited these activities.
