Book launch marks seven-year Palestinian Archive Project

The Ibrahim Abu Lughod Institute of International Studies at Birzeit University celebrated on March 13, 2017 the seventh anniversary of the launch of Birzeit University’s Palestinian Archive Project, with a special book launch for “The Archival Globalization of Palestine: Towards a Chaotic Order,” which was edited by institute history professor Roger Heacock.

Director of the institute Lourd Habash said that the book reflects the chaotic order of the process of archiving in Palestine. “Our seven years of experience in the Palestinian Archive Project made us realize that gathering information about our history is very difficult. The documents are all scattered and sometimes undiscovered, in addition to the outrageous systematic practices by the Israeli occupation that hinder our efforts in maintaining and saving our history and national identity.”

Heacock stated that nation’s approaches towards archiving have been dwindling in the past years, due to the changes in the world order towards the United States hegemony and control of information flow.

He emphasized that the main challenge that can face a field researcher is to convince people to share the documents they have: “Most people are scared of prosecution and accountability.”

Staff members at the Palestinian Digital Archive; Suzan Da’na and Wisam Abu Toyour were thanked for their efforts in the project.