Invitation: Celebrate the Raja Shehadeh Archive
We are delighted to relay the following message from the iconic Educational Bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem concerning a crucial project to help writer Raja Shehadeh save his diaries from destruction:
“We are very proud. For the past two years, the team at the Educational Bookshop has been working in collaboration with the Universities of Edinburgh and Exeter to help Raja Shehadeh safeguard the diaries he has kept daily since his teenage years — literally millions of words documenting six decades of his life, starting even before 1967. Our friend and fellow author Matthew Teller has played a significant role managing this process, for which we are deeply grateful.
Raja’s archive comprises tens of thousands of original documents, including legal and political records kept by his father, the lawyer Aziz Shehadeh (1912–1985). In Ramallah, it was under increasing threat from the Israeli army and militarised settlers. Raja decided to relocate his archive to the UK. The team first had to digitise everything, then physically move the papers out of the country professionally yet quietly. Last month, this process was completed successfully.
Under the terms of his gift to Edinburgh University, Raja retains full copyright and control of all intellectual property rights. The archive is being managed in the UK, but remains part of the inalienable cultural heritage of Palestine.
On 3 September, Raja will read from the diaries and explain more about the process of preservation – and what comes next, in terms of cataloguing and publication.
Join Raja, Mahmoud, Matthew, Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma (Edinburgh University) and James Downs (archivist at Exeter University) for a celebration of a uniquely important cultural legacy which has now been preserved for future generations to study and enjoy.”
Educational Bookshop, Salah Eddin Street, Jerusalem
www.educationalbookshop.com
From Palestine to Scotland: Celebrating the Raja Shehadeh Archive
You are invited to a special event with the acclaimed author Raja Shehadeh, taking place in the UK and streamed online around the world.
Date: Thursday 3 September
Time: 5pm Jerusalem time
(7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST / 4pm CET / 6pm UAE / 10pm KL / Midnight Sydney)
Venue: University of Edinburgh, UK, and online
Free to register at: https://llc.ed.ac.uk/form/public-launch-of-the-raja-shehad
Join internationally acclaimed Palestinian writer, lawyer and activist Raja Shehadeh as he marks the accession of his extraordinary personal archive to the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research Collections.
In this special event, Raja will read from his diaries, which form the majority of the archive, discussing their significance for literature, history and the study of Palestine alongside members of the team who helped preserve, digitise and transport the archive safely to Scotland.
About the Raja Shehadeh Archive
Beginning in May 1967, at the age of just 15, Raja Shehadeh began recording his thoughts, observations and experiences in diaries, which he continues to write six decades on. Written largely in English, these remarkable journals now comprise more than five million words across tens of thousands of pages, offering an unparalleled record of Palestinian life, politics and society through the eyes of one of its most celebrated writers.
Working with teams from the Digital Archive of the Middle East project at the University of Exeter and the Alwaleed Centre and Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh, colleagues from Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop carefully digitised every page of Raja’s diaries, together with the papers of his late father, Aziz Shehadeh, before transporting the whole archive to Edinburgh, where it is now preserved at the University’s Centre for Research Collections.
Under the terms of this gift, Raja Shehadeh and his heirs retain full copyright and control of all intellectual property rights.
