Cairo International Book Fair, by far the nation’s most important cultural event, is proving to be readers’ and publishers’ haven.
The event, taking place on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, is also proving an occasion for showing political affiliations and sympathies.
This is happening with most of the fair’s visitors showing solidarity with Gaza, now under unrelenting Israeli attacks that have so far left over 27,000 people, mostly women and children, dead, over 67,000 others injured, and almost all of Gaza devastated.
The fair’s visitors do this by – among many other things – wearing the iconic Palestinian scarf.
A sizeable number of the publishing houses and book companies participating in the fair also demon- strate this solidarity by filling the shelves of their booths with books about Palestine, including history books and others about Palestinian culture.
The Palestinian Pavilion is becoming the fair’s mecca, a must-visit for most people arriving in of all ages.
Children sit at the pavilion to have the Palestinian flag drawn on their cheeks, with its beautiful green; white; red, and black colours.
The pavilion displays photos of children, who have been killed in Israeli attacks in different parts of Gaza, under the slogan ‘Our Children are not numbers’.
Each photo has information about the children snapped in them: their life, dreams and families.
Palestinian Embassy in Cairo officials are heartened by turnout at the pavilion.
“Our small pavilion has become a destination for fair visitors,” said Naji al-Naji, a cultural advisor at the embassy.
“This shows that Palestine continues to be in every Egyptian’s heart,” he added.
He said Palestinian participation in the fair should send a message about its determination to keep resisting to the end.
The Palestinian Pavilion organises a daily interactive cultural programme, entitled ‘We write for Palestine’.
The programme hosts interactive meetings between authors who write about Palestine, on one hand, and fair visitors, on the other.
The Palestinian Embassy in Cairo also holds cultural seminars on a wide range of topics, including the current situation in the Palestinian territories, the history of the Palestinian issue and international media coverage of developments in Palestine.
Al-Azhar’s Pavilion is also among the most distinctive features of the current edition of Cairo International Book Fair.
The pavilion raises the slogan, ‘Palestine in the heart’. A major screen at the entrance to the pavilion plays documentaries about the history of Palestine. The pavilion also hosts a series of paintings and activities for children in solidarity with Gaza.
Secretary-General of the Islamic Research Academy, Nazir Ayyad, who supervises al-Azhar’s Pavilion at the fair, said most of the activities organised by the pavilion this year focus on Palestine.
The 55th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair is held over 80,000 square metres of land. It features over 550 events. Around 1,200 publishing houses and book companies from 70 countries participate in the fair which is held under the theme ‘Creating Knowledge … Preserving the Word’. The fair ends today.
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