The Other People of the Book

Jerusalem in mid-October was once again home to the people of the book. Some 60,000 men, women and children visited the city library in Ahwan El-Safa Street during five days, to browse through the 450,000 volumes on display, and to buy from among the 8,000 titles offered.

There was a marked difference, however, between this particular Book Week and others that Jerusalem hosts: every one of the books was in Arabic, and the vast majority of the thousands of book lovers who turned up were Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.

"This is the seventh year we have organized an Arab Book Week in the city, and its easily the biggest and the best, so far," says Meir Liani, director of libraries for the Jerusalem municipality. "Each year, it has grown more extensive and more popular. This year, the principals of every Arab school in the city came to the opening ceremony, along with many of their colleagues from Arab schools outside Jerusalem and most of the countrys Arab university lecturers. During the days that followed, whole classes from Arab schools in Israel came, children brought their parents, and parents brought their children. If an Arabic book week was a strange idea seven years ago, its now one thats well-known and extremely popular."

With Hebrew Book Week a long-established and much-enjoyed annual event in Jerusalem, the municipality decided to extend a similar service to Jerusalems Arab citizens. Arabic Book Week was launched in 1991 under then Mayor Teddy Kollek. His successor, Ehud Olmert, who formally opened the 1998 event, has continued the municipalitys support, authorizing the necessary funding and organization.

"Arabic Book Week has no parallel anywhere, even in the Arab world," says Liani, who is responsible for organizing the event. "Major literary and cultural figures attend author Dr. Farouk Mussai, for example, spoke at the opening ceremony this year. And the books displayed are published in every Arab country, from Morocco to Kuwait. This year, we had encyclopedias and novels, books on religion and books on science, dictionaries and childrens books, Egyptian translations of Israeli books (biographies, for example, of Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin), and Arab and Jewish literature."

While no censorship is imposed, the municipality does not allow inclusion of virulent or inflammatory anti-Israeli propaganda. "Arabic Book Week is about Arab culture and business, not politics or nationalism," says Liani. "Publishers and booksellers do a roaring trade during the week and thereafter. And Jerusalems Arab residents not only have access to a wealth of books, but they also flock to the event for the traditional music, folklore, theater and dance performances organized around Arab Book Week. This year, there was even a magic show for the children."