It is in Gaza, in the Palestinian Territory, that Samir Mansour, 54, will therefore open his second bookstore. Second, because the first disappeared, bombed by the Israeli air force on May 18 during the last Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reduced to rubble in a few seconds. That day, at six o’clock in the morning, Samir Mansour was still at home. He had just got up, and when he turned on the TV he saw that the district where his shop was located had just been targeted by several strikes. He rushes in immediately but discovers only ruins and dust, and tens of thousands of books gone up in smoke. “Twenty years of my life, he said to the newspaper The Guardian, everything I had worked for I saw destroyed before my eyes.“
It was a shock to realize that I could be a target, I worked in the middle of books all my life, I started with my father at 12, I am not affiliated with any political group, of course I grew up in war-torn territory but I hadn’t prepared for it.
Samir Mansour, bookseller in Gazaat the Guardian
Samir Mansour is not the only one to mourn his books since his bookstore was the largest in Gaza, an institution, known to all, bringing together novels, poetry, philosophy, children’s books, one of the few places where readers could meet. , have a coffee while reading, forget about the war. Forget about violence. This is what the bookseller himself, Samir Mansour, did, who ended up forgetting that he could be touched. The other thing for which he was not prepared was an immense surge of solidarity which arose. In a few hours, he saw his clients arrive, help him turn over the rubble, take out the books, save the essentials.
تحت هذه الأنقاض أصبحت “مكتبة سمير منصور” إثر القصف الاسرائيلي لعمارة كحيل في شارع الثلاثيني, المكتبة التي كانت تبتسم للمارة والقراء ويحبها الجميع, أصبحت أثرا بعد عين; الحمدلله.# مكتبة_سمير_منصور#gazaunderattacks pic.twitter.com/22oaWuzk6k
– مكتبة سمير منصور (@samirbookshop) May 18, 2021
Very quickly, the news crossed borders. So much so that, the very next day, a fund of support was opened on the internet and anonymous people from all over the world made donations: 243,000 dollars in total to help it rebuild. Others have sent books to re-stock. And seven months later, after many difficulties in finding something to build a new store in the midst of the blockade, Samir Mansour will finally be able to open, there in a few days, in three times the size. He announced to the Guardian, full of hope and gratitude, “because despite the embargo, he concludes, we manage and we survive. “