Ramallah – Ma’an – The National Library honored the winners of its 2023 Research and Studies Award on Monday, under the patronage of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The ceremony was attended by the Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Laila Ghanem, the Minister of Culture, Imad Hamdan, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Palestine, Abdel Rahim Meziane, a representative of the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman in Palestine, Mr. Khamis bin Salem Al-Saadi, and representatives of national, literary and community institutions and events.
The first prize was shared between researchers Muhammad Alwan for his research entitled: ‘The Role of Visual Art in Resisting the Israeli Occupation,’ and Mahmoud Ziad for his research entitled: ‘British Colonial Prisons in Palestine.’
The second prize was shared between Tahseen Yaqeen for his research entitled: ‘Features and Trends of Palestinian Theatre’ and Dunya Al-Amal Ismail for her research entitled: ‘Theatre in Palestine, Hope and Challenges.’
The third prize was shared
between Muhammad Al-Bata for his research entitled: ‘Cemeteries of Numbers in Palestine,’ and Imad Al-Asfar for his research entitled: ‘The Minority of Light in the Palestinian Media.’
The library also honored the family of the martyred prisoner Walid Daqqa as the cultural personality of the year, and the family of the poet of the revolution Samih al-Qasim, in addition to three elite poets and writers, namely the martyred poet Salim Nafar, the writer Yahya Yakhlef, and the novelist Mahmoud Shuqair.
Ghanem said: Despite the pain, there is hope, and the award confirms our people’s insistence on living despite the massacres being committed in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and other violations.
She added that there are those who are trying to create a false history for him, but our history is real and realistic and will always be despite all attempts at falsification.
For his part, Hamdan said: The National Library was distinguished during the previous period by its remarkable presence despite the weakness o
f its capabilities. It still needs more attention from various official, civil and private levels, so that we can advance it through joint work to complete the founding stage.
He expressed the Ministry of Culture’s belief in the importance of the role of the National Library in preserving the national narrative, as a platform for our people’s presence among nations by introducing them, their history and their story.
In turn, the head of the Palestinian National Library, Issa Qaraqe, said that the award represents a cultural, academic, and research activity that stems from the necessity of writing our story, and that the idea of ??the award was launched to encourage and motivate researchers and writers first, because the novel is our novel, the land is our land, and history is our history.
He added that the National Library, in its first activity at its headquarters, launched this award in 2023 in its first session.
For his part, the head of the scientific committee for the first session of the National Li
brary Award for Research and Studies, Hamdan Taha, said that the award was launched at the beginning of 2023, and it was scheduled to be announced on the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29, but it was postponed due to the war of extermination against our people.
He added that 76 participants applied for the award, and 11 participants were excluded procedurally because the topic of participation did not apply to the award’s fields, noting that it is evident from the titles of the participations and the names of the applicants that they include important research that deserves to be given its appropriate place. Thus, the evaluation process was conducted for a total of 65 participants, based on a unified evaluation model inspired by local and international award systems.
It is noteworthy that the award included the fields of: tangible and intangible heritage, arts and history. The participating research was distributed over a group of sub-fields, namely: studies in theatre, studies in
plastic arts, studies on the issue of prisoners and prisons, and studies in the field of antiquities, history, architecture and cultural heritage.
Source: Maan News Agency