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The Policy and Conflict Resolution Studies Center at Arab American University, Ramallah Campus, organized a workshop entitled "The National Archive between Reality and the Future", which included representatives of official institutions, civil society and a number of academics interested in archiving and national narratives.
Part of the Workshop
The workshop emphasizes the importance of the archive in preserving the collective memory and national identity, its role in writing history and building a narrative of the Palestinian biography based on its primary sources, especially in view of the increasing number of institutions working on collecting this archive in its various tangible and intangible fields.
The workshop was opened by the chairman of the Center at Arab American University Dr. Ayman Yousef, with a speech welcoming the attendees and pointing out the importance of discussing the reality of the archive and exploring the possibilities of preserving it.
The participants in the workshop reviewed their practical experiences in archiving, and highlighting their most important achievements, as well as the obstacles facing the process of establishing a national archive of all the historical and cultural heritage of Palestine.
The participants agreed on the importance of adopting the law that regulates the process of archiving and protects property rights, assuring the importance of coordination of efforts, calling for complementarity in work, establishing archival materials database and their allocations, as well as adopting a national strategy that organizes the archiving process and prevents it from overlapping and randomization. The importance of holding a national conference to discuss this issue, and come up with recommendations to worked on with the official bodies in order to adopt them.
Dr. Nahed Habib Allah, specialized in sociology and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center at the Arab American University, concluded the workshop by assuring the participants' recommendations which were presented during the workshop, confirming the necessity of continuing these coordination sessions, forming working committees to search for all archives and collect them, as one of the most important means to protect the collective memory and national identity of nations.