A field trip by two American librarians to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Palestine yielded a meeting with Yasir Arafat November 14, at which the president of the Palestinian Autonomous Region revealed plans for a $28-million national library to be constructed by year 2000.
Under the aegis of the ALA International Relations Committee, Ravi Sharma, director of the library at West Virginia State College, and Ron Chepesiuk, professor and head of special collections at the Dacus Library at Winthrop University in South Carolina met with Arafat and spent a week visiting libraries in the region.
“A national library can serve as a symbol of cultural pride. It's also important to have a national library because it is the institution that preserves the record of the people. It will also serve as the foundation for the growth of our national library system,” Arafat said.
Posted December 15, 1997.