National book retailer donates 1000 books to destroyed Gaza bookshop

Books2Door, a national online bookseller, has donated 1,000 books to Gaza’s largest bookshop recently destroyed by airstrikes.

As a result of the siege on Gaza Strip the two-story Samir Mansour book store, which also served as a local community centre, was demolished – leaving tens of thousands of books completely ruined.

The GoFundMe campaign to support the rebuilding of the beloved bookstore has been circulating social media. Books2Door founder Abdul Thadha saw this and immediately contacted the fundraising organisers to arrange for an initial donation of 1,000 books. This collaboration is a heartfelt gesture to help the Gaza bookstore to rebuild its 21-year-old heritage. Samir Mansour’s book store was renowned for stocking everything from philosophy and art history, to fiction, children’s and self-help books.

Abdul explains, “When I saw this, my heart sank. The story is devastating and without any hesitation I knew we could help. It doesn’t matter that we are based in the UK. We have shown our support and genuine compassion by shipping 1,000 children’s books. This is just to begin with.

We were kindly informed by the fundraisers that Samir had a diverse, eclectic collection so we hope we have done him proud.”

The fundraising and donation campaign on GoFundMe is being championed by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith. In response to the donation, they said, “We were overwhelmed with the generosity from both Books2Door and the team in helping the bookstore rise as a Phoenix from the ashes. With this kind of support now all we need is some humanitarian cooperation from the Israeli and Gaza authorities.”

Follow the Samir Mansour campaign here:
• GoFundMe – click here
• Instagram:@Samir_mansour_bookshop
• Twitter:@Samirbookshop