Reading in Gaza
Academic solidarity with Palestine

All types of libraries and archives —in schools, cultural centers, municipal, university, and historical buildings—as well as publishing houses, printing presses, bookstores, and literary cafés were massively and systematically targeted in Gaza starting from the very week following the massacres of October 7. And it has never stopped since. Tens of thousands of books, texts, written documents and works have disappeared. Press collections, archival records, manuscripts and other heritage holdings, children’s books, school and university textbooks, musical scores, poems—are either gone or currently being destroyed in the ruins of buildings that have been bombed or mined.

Libraries and archive centers have never been merely collections of books and writings gathered for study or preservation. They have always been spaces of reading and writing that, especially in times of conflict, can foster a social and global dynamic toward peace. To destroy books, writings and reading in Gaza is, therefore, to deliberately prevent the conditions for a return to peace for civilian populations on both sides of the divide.

Beyond the heritage value of the buildings and collections covered by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, libraries and archive centers are also living spaces meant to shelter the most vulnerable. Books and other writings are housed within these ‘unarmed buildings,’ which can serve as shelters for refugees. And this is why they must also be protected. Protecting the hospitality—all forms of hospitality—offered by books, writings, and reading.

Reading in Gaza therefore unconditionally stands on the side of peace and the civilian populations in Gaza whose living environment is being totally destroyed. The destruction of books and writings aims to reach people down to their very humanity, a humanity that is, however, the same in Gaza and beyond Gaza.

Originally, the Reading in Gaza project was born out of an interest in reading, books, all other kinds of writings, and all types of possible uses of them—in libraries, archive centers, universities, bookstores, schools, publishing houses, and printing presses.

Mapping of reading and writing sites destroyed and/or damaged in Gaza since October 7, 2023

Situation overview of reading and writing sites

January 2026 – the first month of publication for the work of Reading in Gaza – is devoted to the publication of eight fact sheets documenting the destruction and/or damage to eight university libraries and universities, all located in Gaza. We chose to start with this type of library and academic institution because of the large number of students, teachers, and researchers from Gaza on the team.
Directly impacted by this destruction, they have taken on the bulk of this work under very difficult humanitarian conditions. February will be devoted to publishing reports documenting the destruction or damage to cultural centers, while March will be devoted to bookstores. In April, we’ll focus on children’s libraries.