Archiving as resistance: The battle to save Gaza’s cultural heritage

A new book, 'Archiving Gaza in the Present: Memory, Culture, and Erasure,' documents efforts to preserve Gaza's cultural heritage amid Israeli bombardment. It features artist Shareef Sarhan, whose sculpture 'Minarat Gaza' was destroyed by an airstrike, and highlights the rescue of 2,433 objects from the Al-Qarara Cultural Museum. The volume frames archiving as resistance to 'memoricide.'

A new book, 'Archiving Gaza in the Present: Memory, Culture, and Erasure,' published by Saqi Books, documents the efforts of Gazan artists, curators, and archaeologists to preserve the enclave's cultural heritage amid ongoing Israeli bombardment. The volume, edited by Dina Matar and Venetia Porter, presents archiving as an act of resistance against what they call 'memoricide' — the systematic destruction of Palestinian culture and memory. It features the story of artist Shareef Sarhan, whose 15-meter-high sculpture 'Minarat Gaza' was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in 2023; Sarhan later rebuilt a smaller version in Marseille, France. The book also highlights the rescue of 2,433 objects from the Al-Qarara Cultural Museum in Khan Younis, which was destroyed early in the war. Porter, a research fellow at the British Museum, notes that unlike most archives, this one is being assembled in real time amid the conflict. The book aims to restore the four millennia of history that the genocide has tried to erase, challenging the image of Gaza as a place defined solely by deprivation and conflict.