Unique Palestinian Diaries Acquired by University of Edinburgh

An archive chronicling more than six decades of life in Palestine has been saved from the risk of destruction and preserved at the Universities of Edinburgh and Exeter for study, teaching and research.

The archive, comprising thousands of pages from diaries, personal documents and digital records, has been donated by award-winning Palestinian author and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh. 

Diary extracts include accounts of meetings with notable figures including former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and US president Jimmy Carter, records of Shehadeh’s role as legal counsellor to the Palestinian delegation engaging in peace talks following the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, and entries documenting the Israeli military incursion into Ramallah in 2002.

Shehadeh’s physical archive has been preserved by the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research Collections and digital copies have been stored at the Digital Archive of the Middle East (DAME), based at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.

Shehadeh’s diaries begin in 1967 when he was aged 15, and offer unique insight into Palestinian society. Through an estimated five million words, Shehadeh has captured daily life in the diaries spanning 60 years.

Alongside the diaries, the archive includes original copies of military orders, issued following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, and legal and diplomatic papers that belonged to Shehadeh’s father, the prominent international lawyer Aziz Shehadeh, that span the 1930s to the 1980s.

For many years, the archive was stored at a property in Ramallah. Following the targeting of buildings which has destroyed libraries, museums and other cultural institutions during Israeli military operations in Gaza, and the spread of violence to the West Bank, Shehadeh wanted to ensure his archive was safeguarded from loss.

Under the direction of UK-based writer and journalist Matthew Teller, a team was assembled comprising of the Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World and Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, and Palestinian project partner the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem.

Over two years, members of the project team in Palestine worked discreetly to assess and preserve the collection, and secure archival materials in safe locations. Work included digitising paper items and safely transporting the entirety of the paper archive to the UK. The archive will operate under the University policy of an open and transparent archive available to all researchers, scholars and members of the public.

Around 4,000 pages from the archive have now been made publicly available. Due to the vast amount of material in the archives, the project team now hopes to secure further funding to enable the entire collection to be catalogued and eventually made free and accessible to the public worldwide.

“I am happy and relieved that my and my father’s archives are now safe and will be published in the interests of truth and justice," said Raja Shehadeh. "I have long been aware of Israel’s destruction of Palestinian archives in Beirut, Jerusalem and elsewhere, and of the importance of preserving Palestine’s cultural heritage. I consider Edinburgh my second home, and I am profoundly grateful to the universities of Edinburgh and Exeter, where these papers are now safely deposited.”