The Goethe Institute has opened a meeting room for reading, German language courses and intercultural dialogue in Gaza City in the Palestinian Territories.

Gaza City, near the municipal
library. Photo: Jörg
Schumacher / Goethe Institute

At times, there was not enough timber and metal for the bookshelves, then there were difficulties importing the books and other media to fill up the library space. Now,  after more than a year of planning, the Goethe Institute has set up a so-called Dialogpunkt – a meeting place for dialogue – in the municipal library in Gaza City. It is aimed at boosting cultural dialogue between Germany and the Gaza Strip, and has been established as part of a wider program aimed at promoting dialogue with Islamic countries and regions. The Dialogpunkt includes a reading room, a space for language courses and for events with German and Palestinian artists and intellectuals.

“We are the first institute to open a presence in Gaza after the war,” says Jörg Schumacher, director of the Goethe Institute Palestinian Territories in Ramallah. The reading room of the Dialogpunkt is stocked with around one thousand media – books, interactive language and learning materials, magazines, DVDs and music CDs. Most of the books are Arabic translations of German books or German translations of Arabic works.

Sahel Karma, a German-speaking employee of the municipal library and Dialogpunkt supervisor, says he hopes to offer the people in Gaza not only information but a “place for learning and open discussion.”