The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre was broken into this morning Saturday April 13th 2002 by the Israeli army at 10:50 AM. The army arrived in 2 tanks and 4 armored personnel carriers. They went through the front gate, detonated the second floor iron door and broke in. All of the windows of the two floors have been shattered. The soliders stayed inside for 40 minutes and left at 11:30AM.
We have no way of finding out what acts of vandalism and/or theft they have wrought, as we are barred from leaving our homes for the 16th day running. We will have to wait until the next lifting of the siege to assess and document the damage.
The building of the Centre is a beautiful model of traditional Palestinian architecture, originally built in 1927 and renovated in 1995. It houses valuable art work, valuable ancient manuscripts -by Khalil Sakakini-, and it also houses the offices of the poet Mahmoud Darwish. The Centre hosted a week before the current start of the current invasion a visit by a delegation of international writers, among them 2 Nobel literature prize laureates, Wole Soyinka and Jose Saramago.
This is the second breaking into of an art institution, following the break in and vandalism of the Qassaba Theater & Cinematheque in Ramallah, and the current occupation of the Bethlehem Peace Center. In addition to the break in and vandalism, of the ministry of education in Ramallah.
Since the start of the latest invasion, the Sakakini has continued its work underground with the gathering and posting of testimonies about daily life under siege, letters and drawings by children, appeals to the media, and an open letter to George Bush. All these documents may be found at: Http://www.intertech-pal.com. The other website featuring these documents has been hacked by the Israelis: http://www.alnakba.org/siege
We are not surprised that this Israeli army that has no respect for human lives as demonstrated in the barbarous Jenine Camp massacre, or for holy places as demonstrated in the continuing medieval siege to the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, also shows no respect to the dignity of cultural human heritage.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, YOU CAN CONTACT ME -THE SAKAKINI DIRECTOR- AT: (972 2) 298 62 27 IN RAMALLAH, &/OR IN JERUSALEM, MR. MAZEN QUPTY, THE HEAD OF THE SAKAKINI BOARD OF DIRECTORS: (972) 50 210 093.