The department manages three individual and unique projects : the publishing of Arabic children’s books (both original and translated from Hebrew), writing and illustration workshops in Arab cities in Israel and the “Hakya” website for Arab children’s literature.
The 'Hikaya' workshop was founded in 2016 and it takes place in different Arab towns and villages in the north and center of Israel. The goal of the workshop is to help develop and improve the quality of the arabic children's books in Israel. These workshops are a great success and they are in great demand in the community and most of the graduates in these programs have been accepted in the book industry as writers and illustrators. Thanks to this department there have been many publications of original literature in Arabic and translations of Hebrew books to Arabic. The Israeli Center of Libraries is a pioneer in the field of book translating in to Arabic in Israel and this doing has an important part in the nurturing of excellence in the minority Arab population in Israel.
Ala Hlehel
Director of the Department of Arabic Literature and Culture
arabic@icl.org.il
Tel: 050-8714001