People gather to protest outside the courthouse in Jerusalem in with the booksellers who were arrested the day before [GETTY]
Israeli police raided a renowned Palestinian-owned bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem, detaining the owners and confiscating books relating to Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Educational Bookshop’s owners, Ahmed and Mahmoud Muna, were detained, as police confiscated hundreds of titles related to the war on Gaza before ordering the store’s closure, according to Mahmoud’s wife, May.
She said the soldiers picked out books with Palestinian titles or flags “without knowing what any of them meant”.
She said they used Google Translate on some of the Arabic titles before carting them away in plastic bags.
The Israeli police said in a statement that the two owners were arrested on suspicion of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism”.
The owners’ detention has been extended for another 24 hours and will be placed under house arrest for seven days.
The police referred to an English-language children’s colouring book entitled ‘From the River to the Sea‘, recounting the story of Palestine.
“This is a bookstore, and its people are an important part of the shared future we envision for Jerusalem,” The Time Has Come, an Israeli peace coalition, told The New Arab.
“The arrest and confiscation not only harm the right to free expression and the freedom of information but also place the city’s future on the brink.”
“We must fight for a Jerusalem of peace and partnership, not one of fear and oppression.”
“As publishers and freedom of expression organisations, our commitment is to advocate for the right to read to curiosity and the free flow of information,” UK publisher Saqi Books said in a statement. The publisher recently released ‘Daybreak in Gaza’, featuring stories of Palestinian lives and culture.
“We stand firm in support of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna – indeed all booksellers, editors and writers everywhere – and call on our colleagues and partners in the publishing industry, the book trade and beyond, to join us in demanding their immediate release and their unfettered freedom to promote literature and to sell books.”
The three-story bookstore raided on Sunday has a large selection of books, mainly in Arabic and English, about the war and the wider Middle East, including many by Israeli and Jewish authors.
It also hosts cultural events and is especially popular among researchers, journalists, and foreign diplomats.
Protesters, including Israeli MK Ayman Odeh and author Nathan Thrall, have gathered outside the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court to support the booksellers.
Police raided another Palestinian-owned bookstore in the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem last week.
Israel has long been accused of attempting to erase the intellectual and cultural life of Jerusalem, launching several raids and attacks in the territory, erasing cultural sites, and even removing the Arabic names of Jerusalem’s streets and geography.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC in connection to war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and whose government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has said Israel must maintain indefinite control over all the territory west of Jordan, having occupied the Palestinian land since 1967.
Israeli forces stole 70,000 Palestinian books in the western part of Jerusalem in 1948 after Israel was formed.
In 2022, Palestinian schools in Jerusalem went on strike after Israel tried to censor and edit Palestinian textbooks and introduce an Israeli curriculum in classrooms.
