Why does Barcelona have the only bookstore in the world dedicated to the Palestinian conflict?

BarcelonaWith a t-shirt that reads "Palestinians will be free" and two uppercase tattoos on his forearms that say "SILENCE IS COMPLICITY", the pharmaceutical group Ferrer businessman and patron of the Ferrer Foundations, Sergi Ferrer-Salat, presented this Friday with his kind anti-system vehemence an exceptional project in Barcelona: the only bookstore in the world dedicated to the Palestinian conflict and its ramifications. "The question shouldn't be why we are opening this bookstore, the question is why no one has opened it before —he begins—. The main reason is the lack of awareness of to what extent the cause of the Palestinian people condenses, like no other in terms of virulence, cruelty, cynicism, and dehumanization, the full contemporary validity of the fateful triangle of imperialcolonialism, capitalism, and racism that has led us to today's world, a world eaten away and devastated by an unsustainable and immoral degree of inequality and injustice.

Ferrer-Salat says it's hard for him to think that he lives 3,000 kilometers from such a savage war and does nothing, as if he were writing Kafka's diary a century later. "It's not even a question of humanity, it's self-interest: we cannot allow it. As Francesca Albanese said, now it is the Palestinians and tomorrow it could perfectly well be us. Who will come to save us?", he poses. Raquel Martí, director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is at the opening of the bookstore, which coincides with Nakba Day. She explains that Gazans are once again on the verge of starvation and coexist with plagues of rats and insects in the tents. Since the ceasefire, there have been 800 Palestinian victims, and the violation of humanitarian law continues. "I find it morally unbearable how the most elementary human dignity is being crushed", insists Ferrer-Salat.

It is true that, given this scenario, the Finestres Palestina bookstore, located on Verdi street in Gràcia, is a small oasis: a small and beautiful space where the water of a fountain flowing in the inner courtyard can even be heard in the background, referencing the Jordan River. Designed by the Palestinian architect Malek Murad with the colors of the Palestinian flag, the establishment has the elegant aesthetic of other stores. On the shelves, titles such as Orientalism and The Palestine Question, by Edward W. Said; books by Ilan Pappé; I Want to Be Awake When I Die, by Atef Abu Saif; the comics A History of Jerusalem and Terre de sang: les temps du désespoir,, by Joann Sfar. There are now about two thousand titles but it can hold double that, and they are in Catalan, Spanish, Arabic, English, or French. The sections include everything from gastronomy to Arabic studies, and the underlying themes are belonging, identity, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, geopolitics, memories, and resistance. Ferrer-Salat says there will be essays about Israel and Israeli authors, but not books "that indoctrinate with manipulated and distorted theses." They also do not fear vandalism like what they suffered at Finestres de Diputació: "Whoever has an opinion, let them come and talk," says Olivia Watson.

, who has been living here for thirteen years, and bookseller Xavier Morales, who has been at FNAC for eight years.

Mohamed Bitari, who has been living here for thirteen years, and bookseller Xavier Morales, who has been at FNAC for eight years.