CARLSBAD -- The Palestine Right to Return Coalition--also known in Arabic as the Al-Awda Center--plans to build a library to serve as a repository of the history behind its very mission and a place to keep a record of ongoing efforts by the group. The coalition aims to secure rights of repatriation for members of the Palestinian diaspora, which has spread throughout the world since the 1948 creation of Israel on lands that had previously been considered Palestine.
The library is called the Palestine Book Center and is the latest addition to the Al-Awda Center in Carlsbad, California, a city situated approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, the two most populous cities in the state.
The decision to proceed with plans for the library followed a resolution approved by attendees at the recent International Al-Awda Convention, held in Anaheim, California.
The library is expected to house a wide variety of books and other publications that focus on "the struggle for Palestinian return and liberation," according to supporters. The library will also serve as a repository for the Al-Awda Center's multi-media educational materials related to various aspects of Palestine, its people, and Arab culture. The organization plans to feature reviews and analysis of books and papers that will be available at the library on its multimedia sites and in newsletters. A listing of the books and papers available currently at the library can seen by visiting www.al-awdacal.org/books.html
Recent additions to the library provide a distinctive Palestinian viewpoint on events that have roiled the Middle East over the past 60 years. Some of them will no doubt tempt controversy, including "Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," by Ilan Pappe (2006, Oneworld Publications Ltd). Dr. Pappe is a Professor of history at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, (England), who contends that the forced expulsion of more than three quarters of a million Palestinians between 1948-49 was part of a long-standing Zionist plan to impose an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine.
Pappe's research and deductions indicate a direct role of Zionist groups, such as Haganah, in the demolition and depopulation of hundreds of Palestinian villages, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs. Pappe's also contends that events in Palestine had a direct bearing on on what would become the accepted international of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, including the United Nations' standards.
Joseph Haiek is publisher and editor of the Arab-American Affairs Magazine.
Leave a comment