57 min
Benny Brunner
Documentary
2012 - The Netherlands
Featuring Gish Amit, Rona Sela
Event Details:
On Thursday May 15th, at 7pm at Beit Zatoun, TPFF will commemorate the Nakba with a special screening of The Great Book Robbery - a film about the books and artworks stolen from the homes of Palestinians after they were expelled. Following the film's screening, TPFF will host a discussion about the film and the efforts being made to reunite Palestinians with their stolen property.
For Palestinians, May 15th is the annual day of commemoration of the displacement and exile of the indigenous people of Palestine in 1948 to create the state of Israel. This catastrophe is ongoing and has had a boundless impact on the history and identity of the Palestinian people.
The Great Book Robbery Synopiss
A synopsis tells: “Goodbye, my books! Farewell to the house of wisdom… I do not know what became of you after we left….” These haunting words by Khalil al-Sakakini, a prominent Palestinian educator from Jerusalem, chronicle one of the untold stories of the Nakba. As Palestinians were expelled from their land in 1948, librarians from Israel’s National Library followed the militias as they forced their way into Palestinian homes. Their mission was to collect as many valuable books, manuscripts, photographs and artworks as possible – an estimated 70,000 books were seized and labelled ‘AP’ (Abandoned Property). Officially, the Israelis labelled this as a ‘cultural rescue operation’ but for Palestinians it was ‘cultural theft’. In 2008, an Israeli PhD student stumbled across documents in the national archive that revealed the full extent of the ‘collection’ policy. Using interviews, animation and secret footage, the film tells the stories of the books and their owners, and exposes Israel’s refusal to return the looted property to their rightful owners.