GAZA, (PIC)
Wars often lead to the destruction of military capabilities on one side, obtaining intelligence, or seizing economic resources. Such actions may be understandable (or even justified) for those who carry them out. However, when culture, its monuments, and symbols become military targets to be crushed and destroyed, this is something that cannot be understood or justified except within a sadistic criminal context that aims to undermine the human and civilizational components of the victim. This is what the Israeli occupation is doing in its war on the Gaza Strip, in one of the brutal scenarios it has been committing for over 14 months.
The Rashad Al-Shawa Cultural Center represents one of the testimonies to the Israeli occupation’s scorched-earth policy in its war on Gaza. The center was transformed from a cultural symbol that welcomed hundreds daily for its intellectual, cultural, and artistic activities, hosting exhibitions, and connecting with the world through discussions and seminars on various local and global issues, into a destroyed building and a desolate place visited only by displaced individuals seeking refuge from the Nazi-like massacre waged by the Israeli occupation army across the enclave.
Following the resistance’s attack on October 7, 2023, the Israeli aggression began targeting all cities and areas of Gaza, especially the northern governorates, with death spreading everywhere. Gazans found themselves forced to flee from place to place, seeking nothing more than to escape Israeli death machines. Weeks passed after the onset of the aggression, leading to a temporary truce between the resistance factions and the occupation army that lasted a few days. During this truce, residents of the Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza returned to their homes, only to be shocked to find that the “Rashad Al-Shawa” Center had become a mere memory after being bombed by the occupation army.
This scene represented a tremendous shock for the residents who were accustomed to this great cultural edifice among them. It was a place of songs, competitions, and the murmuring of readers in a library that housed over one hundred thousand books in various sciences, knowledge, and arts. It was a source of pride for the people of Gaza, a destination for visitors from all over the world, and a cultural beacon and intellectual window expressing the diversity and openness of Palestinian civilization. In addition to what this center represented in terms of cherished memories, it was reduced to a pile of rubble by the brutality of the occupation army.
The Gaza Municipality issued a statement condemning the occupation’s destruction of the Rashad Al-Shawa Center, asserting that the targeting of the center falls in line with the occupation’s barbaric aggression against the Gaza Strip, its killing of thousands of civilians, and its destruction of the city’s main landmarks, erasing the civilizational memory of the Palestinian people. The municipality called on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to intervene and condemn the crimes of the occupation against cultural centers, libraries, and historical and archaeological landmarks.
The Rashad Al-Shawa Cultural Center was the first of its kind built in Palestine, named after Rashad Al-Shawa, who served as the mayor of Gaza from 1972 to 1975. He envisioned building this center to serve as a Palestinian cultural front. The idea for establishing the center and designing its architectural and engineering plans began in 1978, and the center was completed in 1985, with the printing press starting to operate in 1986. The center officially opened to host events and activities in 1990, reaching the peak of its activity with the arrival of the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip in 1994, reviving national events.
The center had a distinctive design, consisting of two floors with a triangular ceiling. It was nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992. Before its destruction, those in charge of the center took care to maintain and periodically renovate it to preserve its unique architectural form.
The building hosted significant events in the history of the Palestinian cause, including sessions of the National and Legislative Councils, and visits from heads of state, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1998 during the era of the late President Yasser Arafat, along with many other global and international figures.
Before its destruction, the center worked to end the cultural and civilizational isolation that the Palestinians suffered due to the Israeli occupation and its attempts to erase Palestinian identity and steal its heritage. Even before its destruction, the center faced isolation from the world due to the ongoing Israeli siege and the economic situation that affected various aspects of social and cultural life in Gaza.
Like all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, nothing remains unchanged; buildings are no longer intact, landmarks are not drawn, families are not gathered, institutions are not functioning, and culture is not playing its role in awareness and enlightenment. Instead, all of this stands as a witness to the tragedies of massacres, the separation of families and friends, and the unending displacements, until the Rashad Al-Shawa Center became one of those buildings where people seek refuge, placing some sacks against its walls for shelter, and lighting fires to warm themselves against the harshness of winter.
In its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip, the occupation army targeted cultural and scientific centers, universities, and all outlets expressing the identity and civilization of the Palestinian people in an attempt to erase the cultural landmarks of that land and replace them with complete destruction, embedding the savagery of the occupation in public memory while erasing the identity of the rightful owners of the land and holy sites.
The Rashad Al-Shawa Center was not the only architectural and cultural victim of the Israeli aggression on Gaza; the destruction machine targeted several universities and cultural centers, including “Al-Saqa Palace,” located in the Al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, which was built at the end of the Ottoman period during the reign of Sultan Muhammad IV.
In November 2023, Associate Professor Abaher Al-Saqa from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Birzeit University wrote: “The Saqa House, or as people call it, the Saqa Palace, was built by my late grandfather’s cousin, Ahmad Al-Saqa, one of the city’s major traders. Its walls are adorned with sandstone and Roman marble ceilings. The family dedicated it to become a cultural center after it was renovated by the Islamic University, and it was bombed as part of the brutal colonial bombing. The colonial authorities are erasing the urban and architectural history of the city, alongside the ongoing genocide.”
The Palestinian Popular Architecture Center “Rawaq,” based in Al-Bireh in the West Bank (which had participated in the renovation of the Saqa House with the Iwan Center affiliated with the Islamic University in Gaza), highlighted in a recent post that the house was completely bombed on November 9, according to Aser Al-Saqa, a member of the family that owns the historic building located in Al-Shuja’iyya in Gaza City.
