History of Jerusalem goes online

By Bassel Barakat
ANKARA (AA) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz Public Library (KAPL) and UN Palestinian refugees' agency UNRWA have joined hands to create a database on the history of the holy city of Jerusalem.

KAPL and UNRWA have gathered 820 records of the Jerusalem Shariah Courts, each contains 150-250 pages, to form the database of Palestinian libraries in the Arab Union Catalog, according to Saudi newspaper Arab News.

The archive, which amounts to more than 250,000 pages in books and maps, covers the history of Jerusalem since 1528 and is now available online at the UNRWA Libraries Network.

“Documentation, in principle, is a manifestation of humanity and civilization; it’s a human condition that expresses the life of the individual and his or her deep desire for immortality,” Majed Al-Ahdal, an avid supporter of documenting antiquities, told Arab News.

UNRWA is responsible for a number of critical programs for more than 5 million Palestinian refugees, providing such things as schooling, health services, and food security.

KAPL has been working on Palestinian and Arab histories and has formed a large database and a rare collection of Palestine’s documents, photographs and books.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

International law continues to view East Jerusalem, along with the entire West Bank, as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement construction there as illegal.