Ep. 13: Samir Mansour, Samir Mansour Bookshop (Gaza, Palestine)

This episode is a bit a different than our usual conversations with booksellers. This is a recording of a phone call we had last week with Samir Mansour, to founder of Samir Mansour Bookshop in Gaza, Palestine. Founded 21 years ago, this two-story bookshop was a much-loved part of the local community and had tens of thousands of books covering everything from philosophy and art history to fiction and children’s books. Samir's bookshop also had the largest collection of English literature in Gaza, and was also part of a publishing house that focused on Palestinian writers. We say had because on 18 May 2021, so about 2 months ago, during the 11-day conflict that killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel, Samir Mansour Bookshop was bombed and destroyed. Samir lost almost 100,000 books that served schoolchildren and adults alike. Mansour’s bookstore, also a publishing house, was unable to save any books from the large collection.

What goods can enter Gaza is limited. The international aid that has been restricted under the blockade since 2007 is now largely blocked from reaching Gaza. Up until the bombardment, the 21-year-old bookshop was able to provide a fair amount of things Gazans craved due to the siege: getting Palestinian voices out from Gaza and bringing the world’s literature into Gaza.

But the Mansour family is determined to keep rebuilding the bookstore and keep the literary spirit alive, even though the destruction is ongoing around them. They have the support of hundreds of booklovers inside and outside of Gaza. Now a fundraiser managed by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith has raised more than $200,000 to help rebuild the shop, and thousands of donated books have been sent from all over the world to help Mansour restock. The goal of this fundraising campaign is to replace all of Mansour’s 100,000 books and rebuild his bookshop. And also to help him establish a new project: the Gaza Cultural Centre, which would be a new library next door, from which readers could borrow books without paying.

We talked to Samir about his bookshop and his hopes for the future. We'd like to also thanks Mariam Joumaa Stanke who kindly offered to translate for us. Here's our conversation with Samir. And here you can find the GoFundMe Campaign https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-gazas-samir-mansour-book-store

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