RAMALLAH, West Bank — Ihab Bseiso's job may be every bibliophile’s dream: The former minister of culture is charged with creating the Palestinian National Library in a palace that stretches over 40 dunams, or 9 acres, of land near Ramallah.

Despite the enthusiasm of Bseiso — a journalist, poet and advocate of culture as a tool of political resistance — the establishment of the national library has been anything but quick. Two years ago, President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decision to turn the presidential palace in Sarda, north of Ramallah, into a national library. It took another two years to appoint Bseiso, who was one of the brains behind the project to gather Palestine's scattered archives.

“We want the national Palestinian library to be our link to national libraries around the world," he said at a press conference in 2017. "We want to reclaim our looted heritage [by getting back Palestinian documents from around the world] through agreements … and through laws defending our cultural existence.”

Bseiso, 41, stepped into politics after a career in media and communications. He worked at Birzeit University's media department before joining the government’s media center in 2012. After a few years as a government spokesman, he served as culture minister in the Palestinian Authority from April 2014 to April 2019.