The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun

The National Library of Israel has launched an initiative to preserve all forms of documentation of the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to make them accessible for future generations and for historical research.

The institution said it aims to be the central repository for the preservation of all documentation related to the events, including testimonies; audio and video recordings; online and text messages; press clips; ephemera and posts from social media, civil institutions, local authorities, the military, and governments; and publications from various government websites, local authorities, southern and northern border communities, and the security and defense establishment. The project is being supported by Israel’s Ministry of Heritage.

The Israeli Civil Administration has already transferred about 200,000 photos and videos collected by its operations room to the library for preservation. The library has determined there are “tens of thousands” of different forms of documentation it wants to collect, such as recordings of fallen victims and fighters; interviews with survivors and families of hostages taken by Hamas; and hundreds of thousands of video recordings created by the IDF, Israeli security forces, advocacy organizations, private individuals, and terrorists.

The institution explained that Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7 was the first event of its kind to be almost solely documented electronically, which means that it could be easily forgotten “if not properly organized.”

“The goal is to create a large, authoritative database encompassing the entirety of evidence, documentation, media coverage, and outreach activities, for the benefit of Jewish communal memory and historical research, and to make this evidence available and accessible for the long-term,” the library said.

The initiative will be a long-term project, explained Dr. Raquel Ukeles, head of collections at the National Library of Israel.

“It is already clear that even after the war’s end, the need to understand, study, and research the events of October 7th and the current war, and their social, cultural, military, and political consequences, will remain relevant and important for decades to come,” added Ukeles. “The work of collecting, preserving materials, and making them publicly available requires the combined resources and joint commitment of all of the organizations that deal with documentation and preservation, and we are grateful to all who participate.”

The National Library of Israel is partnering with dozens of organizations in Israel and around the world to bring this project to life. Its partners include: the Israel Oral History Association (ILOHA), the Oral History Division at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Association of Israeli Archivists; the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies at Tel Aviv University; the USC Shoah Foundation; the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL); the Berman Archive at Stanford University; the Israeli Civil Administration; the Leadership Forum for War Documentation Initiatives; Edut 710; Moked Arava; and more.

Others interested in contributing materials to the documentation project are asked to contact the National Library of Israel through its Hebrew language website.