The Givat Haviva Institute has promoted equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel since 1949 and provides tools to this end. Among these tools is a unique and endangered collection of Palestinian newspapers consisting of rare and fragile newspapers from the early 20th century - among the largest archive of its kind in the world. Due to its rarity, the collection is under heavy demand. Givat Haviva is committed to the preservation of this collection and to the implementation of digitization of the collection in order to guarantee future access.

 

Inspired by the spirit and legacy of Givat Haviva, this endeavor deals not only

with the preservation of the Palestinian heritage, but bears with it as well invaluable

assets for the future study and research of the evolution of the State of Israel, and

Israeli Arab society in particular.

 

The digitization project's two main goals are:

Preserve this unique and endangered collection

Provide access to a national and world heritage collection

 

Our long term vision is to see this digital collection become a tool for a series of educational, cultural and academic programs, a searchable resource of world heritage available beyond physical and political hindrances to all.

 

The proposed project has gained the moral support of several organizations and institutions from Israel, the Palestinian Authority areas, and around the world (such as UNESCO and IFLA). However, insufficient funds have prevented its full implementation so far, despite the availability of the technology and a professional work-plan.

 

This online display of a well-defined selection from the collection has been enabled by the support of UNESCO and the assistance of the Israel National Commission for UNESCO. The work on the 'Falastin' issues was done thanks to the support of George S. Blumenthal and the skilled artisanship of Ardon Barhama.

 

The project's dedicated team includes professional consultant Dr. Merav Mack from Cambridge Research Technologies Ltd., Peace Library director and project co-director Samira Mahammid, HaShomer HaTzair Archives director and project co-director David Amitai, and Givat Haviva's computing system administrator Mohammad Shalabne.

 

The online collection is available at http://199.203.183.165/gsdl-2.82/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=p&p=about&c=givathaviva .

Please click on the Peace Library box to view and search it.

 

We welcome any additional support towards the full actualization of this project and urge all interested parties to contact us towards this end.

 

The Peace Library has made every reasonable effort to locate, contact and acknowledge copyright owners and wishes to be informed by any copyright owners who are not properly identified and acknowledged on this website so that we may make any necessary corrections.

Other individuals and organizations wishing to make Peace Library content accessible through their websites are encouraged to create hypertext links to the Peace Library website.

 

Additional details, including partial bibliography of the collection (in Arabic), are available online from the Peace Library web site at: http://www.givathaviva.org.il/english/library/about.htm

 

Samira Mahammid

David Amitai

The Peace Library, Givat Haviva

library@givathaviva.org.il