Noreen, These are very serious allegations. I know that the Israel Center for libraries offers literacy programs in Israeli Arabs villages. Please allow me some time to get more information. I would like to know more about the quality of theses books. I will be surprised if the quality is indded poor. Amalia
Sent from my iPad On Oct 24, 2013, at 2:50 PM, Noreen Wachs <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear Safranim, > > I belong to a library organization called the Hudson Valley Library > Association (HVLA). Most of the Independent schools in the New York City area > belong to this organization. They recently send out this blog post on their > website about libraries in Palestine by Hannah Mermelstein, a librarian in > the St. Anne’s school in Brooklyn. > > I was upset about this post which I felt was very biased against Israel. I > would be very interested in hearing from other safranim about the accuracy of > the facts and the political bias expressed in the article. > > Thank you. > > Noreen Wachs > > Librarian > > Ramaz Middle School > > 114 East 85 Street > > New York, NY 10028 > > > Librarians and Archivists to Palestine > > > Below this note is a guest post by Hannah Mermelstein, a librarian at Saint > Ann’s School in Brooklyn. In the summer of 2013, she led the Librarians and > Archivists to Palestine delegation. > > > Last summer I traveled to Palestine with a group of sixteen librarians and > archivists in order to connect with Palestinian colleagues in libraries, > archives, and related projects and institutions and to gain mutual benefit > through information exchange and skill-sharing. For the past ten years, I > have been working in Palestine in various capacities, including with many > delegations, but this was the first time I was fortunate enough to be able to > merge my two worlds – Palestine and librarianship. What I’d like to share > with you is some of what I learned from Palestinian school librarians and > youth services librarians in particular, both in the West Bank and inside > Israel. > > Near Ramallah, in the central West Bank, we spoke with staff from Al Bireh > Public Library and from the Tamer Institute about the obstacles to obtaining > quality children’s literature in Arabic. Much of the best Arabic kids’ > literature these days is published in Beirut, and the Israeli government > (which controls all borders of the West Bank) does not let books in from > Lebanon. Even when libraries try to obtain Arabic-language books through > third parties, the books are often held up in Customs for months. Whether > they’re ultimately allowed in or not seems somewhat arbitrary, and the > libraries are required to pay for the costs of holding them in Customs. A > Swedish librarian who was on our delegation commented that at the Madaa > Silwan Creative Center in Jerusalem, she saw more books translated from > Swedish into Arabic than originally written in Arabic, and she has more books > originally written in Arabic in her library in Stockholm than they do at the > center! The Tamer Institute for Community Education has tried to mitigate the > negative effects of these Israeli restrictions by co-publishing a few titles > with publishers in Beirut, and by publishing a few of their own as well, but > their efforts are not adequate to meet the needs of the children they’re > serving. > > In Haifa, the situation is even more difficult. Although supposedly a “mixed > city” of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, Haifa has 22 public > library branches that primarily serve the Jewish community, and only one that > serves the Palestinian community. Even this one branch is privately funded by > an NGO, rather than by the Israeli government. We spoke to a number of > Palestinian school and public librarians in Haifa who, because of difficulty > traveling between Israel and the West Bank, are largely unable to supplement > their collections with books put out by the Tamer Institute. Instead, most of > their Arabic language books are low-quality translations of Hebrew books, > effectively denying Palestinian citizens of Israel their literary heritage. > This must be seen in its larger context, librarians told us, in which the > Israeli government has for decades tried to erase Palestinian identity by > calling Palestinians inside Israel “Israeli Arabs” or “Arab Israelis.” So > whereas the availability of quality Arabic children’s literature could be a > powerful way to preserve Palestinian identity and culture, the lack of > availability further demoralizes the community. > > I’ve shared these stories with a few people upon return from Palestine, and > they’ve been moved to try to organize book deliveries to Palestine. Our > delegation has had similar thoughts, but we must be careful how we approach > this. Librarians in Palestine made it clear to us that they are not looking > for a charity model. Not only can charity easily be accompanied by a > colonialist attitude, but it simply won’t work. Large shipments of books > would be held up at Customs for months, and smaller deliveries would do more > to make us feel good about ourselves than make any significant dent in a > system designed to prevent such a project. Palestinian libraries in the West > Bank and inside Israel face a political problem that is at the core of any > economic or humanitarian problems we might more easily address. But this > should not stall our work. We are beginning conversations about effective > follow-up, and we hope others will join us in these efforts. In the meantime, > we can support some of the amazing organizations that are doing such > important work on the ground. Here are a few: > > The Tamer Institute for Community Education – based in Ramallah with partners > throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip > Lajee Center in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem – youth center that has, among > other things, conducted workshops with children in which they have written > and illustrated their own children’s books > Madaa Silwan Creative Center in Jerusalem – many amazing programs, including > a library. They even published their own Palestinian cookbook! > > To keep in touch with the delegation: > Our website – Here you can read more and see the statement we put out shortly > after we returned. > Like us on Facebook. > Follow us on Twitter. > Email [email protected] to join our (very!) low-volume > email list. > > > > > __ > Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author > and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) > ================================== > Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: > [email protected] > To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran > Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] > Ha-Safran Archives: > Current: > http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html > Earlier Listserver: > http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html > AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org > -- > Hasafran mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
__ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list [email protected] https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
