Faculty of Arts celebrates Arabic Language Day with 7,000-book fair

Book lovers got to satiate their literary hunger with more than 7,000 books offered at a book fair hosted in the Faculty of Arts at Birzeit University, held for nine days from December 11 to 20, 2018. 

The book fair, organized by the Deanship of Student Affairs together with the Asfour Book Store and Publishing House in Jenin, is part of the university’s activities marking Arabic Language Day - December 18 of every year - which include the screening of a film on the Arabic language and a lecture on Palestinian folk songs. 

Mohammad Al-Haj Ahmad, activities coordinator at the Deanship of Student Affairs, said the deanship celebrates Arabic Language Day annually by hosting weekly activities, seminars, lectures, and workshops. For this year’s Arabic language week, the university contacted five publishers, as well as the Asfour Book Store, to hold the book fair on the university’s campus, Al-Haj Ahmad added. 

“While we usually contact publishers from Ramallah, this year we’ve hosted publishers from northern West Bank governorates - such as Tulkarem and Jenin - to promote readership and joint intellectual and literary efforts in those areas,” Al-Haj Ahmad commented. 

Ribhi Asfour, director of the book fair, remarked that the Asfour Book Store and Publishing House regularly holds book fairs to promote books as a viable medium of information, especially at a time when digital media devices seem to dominate every aspect of modern life. 

As for the genres of books offered, Asfour said that they range from Arabic and English novels - released within the last year - to historical and political non-fiction archives and human development guides.