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Gaza bookshop 'rises from the ashes' after crowdfunding appeal
A Gaza bookshop destroyed in an Israeli airstrike is due to open next week, following a successful crowdfunding campaign spearheaded by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith.
Samir Mansour bookshop, formerly the largest bookshop in Gaza, has been rebuilt and restocked after an international GoFundMe campaign accrued more than $250,000, with publishers and book companies donating and shipping 150,000 books.
The UK publishing industry rallied in support of the campaign, with Bluemoose Books and Little Toller raising awareness online, alongside Books2Door founder and Sweet Cherry Publishing m.d. Abdul Thadha, who donated 1,000 books to the cause.
The shop, which was renowned for stocking everything from philosophy and art history, to fiction, children’s and self-help books, will open its doors again on 12th February, serving as both a shop and community space.
Stafford Smith had asked owner Samir Mansour to photograph as many titles as he could find in the rubble, with battered books by authors including Monica Ali, John Grisham, Barack Obama, Jesmyn Ward and J K Rowling retrieved.
"My overriding emotion was pathos," Stafford Smith told The Bookseller. "Naturally, the deaths of children in the Gaza War provided an even greater tragedy, but Samir’s books had held out a promise of a brighter future for thousands of people."
Stafford Smith is the founder of the UK non-profit 3DCentre, where he aims to help young people realise their passion for human rights.
"In truth, my own minor role in all this came because my colleague, the Pashtun-American lawyer Mahvish Rukhsana, told me I should help," he said. "She was right. We conducted a campaign so that Samir’s phoenix could rise from the ashes. I am grateful for the generosity of hundreds of donors who stumped up $250,000 via GoFundMe, and the others who provided 150,000 books which wound their way to Gaza courtesy of an equally beneficent shipping company.
"Partly because I am half-Jewish myself, I look back fondly to the Israel of my youth when some of my American university friends emigrated to help build a more just and peaceful country. We are much further away from peace today than we were in 1970."
