Gaza - Press House
On Thursday, 15 October 2020, Press House- Palestine (BAS) organized a dialogue session on the topic of “Special Consultative meeting to assess the role of media in supporting culture” as a part of the planning of intellectuals journalist project in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.
The facilitator of the session Ms. Amal Abu Assi welcomed the hosts of the session Mr. Tawfiq Abu Shumr, palestinian writer, the writer Yousry Al-Ghoul, in the presence of a group of intellectuals, writers and media, which was held via "Zoom" application.
From his part, writer Abu Shumer said that Palestinian culture is a mature culture, and the struggle to make culture the center of conflict must be recast, because fear is not of number and equipment but of cultural power."
On the role of media in supporting culture, Abu Shumr said, "The media now considers culture as a shadow it can wasting because there is no precise meaning to our culture, even though we have a large number of intellectuals, but there is no sponsorship of the cultural organization, and the Palestinians distribute culture but they do not have institutions such as the Land of Israel Fund and the Jewish Organization."
Mr. Shumr added: "The Ministry of Culture promotes the cultural role but it is not responsible for the sector of culture, but the intellectual himself is responsible, and this is why we need to form a cultural lobby that is inclusive of all Palestinian writers and intellectuals, warning of the danger of mixing culture with politics because this threatens to become a poor intellectual."
In his speech at the dialogue session, writer Yousry Al-Ghoul asked: "Are we watching the good or the well-marketed from satellite channels, productions, novels, books and articles?"
"The cultural and media situation is completely linked to the political situation, and the culture of accepting one's opinion is rejected in our societies, and anything that disagrees with us is a traitor," Mr. Al-Ghoul said.
Mr. Al-Ghoul called to provide of 5% of the official budget in favor of Palestinian cultural projects, pointing out that the Ministry of Culture recently printed a batch of books long after it stopped.
"The media must give priority to culture and take the initiative to support good literature and culture," ِMr. Al-Ghoul continued, warning against the theft of our culture, food and clothing by the Israeli occupation, as they said about Edward Saeed have an Israeli nationality.
At the end of the session, the participants expressing their opinions and enriching the cultural scene in the session with regard to Palestinian culture and the coverage of the Palestinian media for cultural events.
Finally, the meeting came up with several important recommendations, the most important of which was " search for funding for cultural works, establishment of a digital publishing house, communication between Arab and Palestinian intellectuals at home and abroad, support for reading and the promotion of the self-culture of journalists, and work to take responsibility for the Palestinian cultural system, in addition to establishing a Palestinian cultural lobby."
