The day Israel came for the booksellers
Mahmoud Muna inside a branch of the Educational Bookshop chain in July 2024
Oren Ziv reports in +972 on 11 February 2025:
If at any point over the past year and a half you might have thought the Israeli authorities had already crossed every possible threshold when it comes to curtailing Palestinians’ freedom of expression, you would have been mistaken. Because yesterday, Israeli police raided two branches of a world-famous Palestinian bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem, arrested the owner and his nephew, and seized a selection of books — including a children’s coloring book.
During the hearing held today at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, the police representative Sgt. Maj. Ortal Malka said they had identified eight books in the Educational Bookshop that met the criteria for “incitement,” but did not specify which ones. She also refused to address the fact that most of the books are not even written in Arabic and that the store’s clientele is primarily international.
One of the East Jerusalem bookstores raided by Israeli police, 9 February 2025
Since an arrest on suspicion of incitement requires prior approval from the State Prosecutor’s Office, the shop’s owner, Mahmoud Muna, and his nephew, Ahmad Muna, who works alongside him, were arrested on suspicion of “disturbing public order” — a common practice in cases related to freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the police claimed in a statement that the store was selling books containing “inciting content and support for terrorism,” and the search warrant that the police used to raid the two branches of the store cited “expressing solidarity with a terrorist organization” as the suspected offense.
The two were held overnight at the Russian Compound, an interrogation center and prison in West Jerusalem, and brought before a judge on Monday afternoon for a hearing on extending their detention. Outside the courtroom, dozens of activists and diplomats gathered for a protest in support of the detainees, while their family members and friends crowded the area, trying to enter. The judge ruled to extend their detention until Tuesday morning, after which he recommended their release. [Update: Mahmoud and Ahmad were released on Tuesday to five days’ house arrest and banned from their shop for 20 days.]