“When a regime is afraid of books, it is yet another sign that its days are numbered.” Ilan Pappe
Israel has released two Palestinian bookstore owners after detaining them from their store in East Jerusalem on Sunday.
Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad Muna were handcuffed and taken away by undercover Israeli police officers from The Educational Bookshop at around three in the afternoon, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported.
The store was ransacked and many publications confiscated, including a children’s coloring-in book titled ‘From the River to the Sea.’
“They used Google Translate on the books, and anything they didn’t like, they took,” said Murad Muna, Mahmoud’s brother on Monday. “They even found a Haaretz newspaper with a picture of the hostages and asked what it was, saying it was incitement. They took every book with a Palestinian flag on it.”
‘Supporting Terrorism’
The charge against Mahmoud and Ahmad was initially “inciting and supporting terrorism,” MEMO reported.
Attorney Nasser Odeh, who represented the booksellers, said that they were told the charge had changed to “disturbing the public order” during the course of their interrogation.
Palestinian bookstore owners in Jerusalem Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad Muna were detained by Israel yesterday.
The owners and booksellers of Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop, Mahmoud and Ahmad were accosted by undercover Israeli police in the bookshop around 3pm. They were… pic.twitter.com/gRymYPVAKT
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) February 11, 2025
“To open an incitement investigation, the police need approval from the public prosecution. It seems they realised they had no chance of getting that approval, so they switched the charge to the more generic ‘disturbing public order’ offense,” he reportedly said.
“I have never encountered a case where someone is held in custody overnight for suspicion of disturbing public order,” Odeh added.
‘Burning Books’ – Ilan Pappe
Renowned Israeli historian and activist Professor Ilan Pappe condemned the arrests of the booksellers, saying “The next stage will be burning books, breaking the window-shop of bookstores.”
“When a regime is afraid of books, it is yet another sign that its days are numbered,” he added, in a Facebook post.
According to Saqi Books publishing house, the booksellers were released on Tuesday.
The publisher, which posted pictures of the two on its Instagram page following their release, earlier issued a statement condemning their arrests.
Stifling of Free Speech
The Educational Bookshop was founded by Mahmoud’s father, Ahmad Muna, in 1984, and specializes in Arabic and English language books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the history of Jerusalem, MEMO reported. All books sold in the bookshop are imported into Israel, mostly via Ashdod port, and pass inspection by Israeli authorities.
Saqi Books said that their detention was “ a stark reminder of the ongoing campaign to stifle free speech and information that challenges Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”
“Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of all just societies. There is no genuine security without the freedom to read, and no freedom to read without booksellers being able to carry out their work safely and freely,” it added in a statement.
Criticism
Their arrests drew widespread condemnation on social media with Husam Zumlot, the State of Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, calling it a reminder of the “ongoing campaign to censor knowledge, stifle free speech and information that challenges Israel’s occupation of Palestine and in this case, Israel’s illegal colonial occupation of #Jerusalem and its oppressive measures in the city.”
Appalled to learn about the Israeli occupation’s raid on the Educational Bookstore — a Palestinian national institution in Jerusalem — and the arrests of owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed.
Zionism = book burning. https://t.co/4kfaJuciqI
— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) February 9, 2025
Another user on X said they were arrested “for the crime of selling books about Palestine.”
“Zionism = book burning,” said journalist Asa Winstanley on X.
Another said: “When a regime fears books, it fears the truth.”
שוטרי מחוז ירושלים עצרו שני תושבי מזרח העיר שלפי החשד מכרו ספרים המכילים תכני הסתה ותמיכה בטרור בחנויות ספרים, ובהם חוברת צביעה לילדים “מהירדן לים” pic.twitter.com/e23s4GfO6x
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) February 10, 2025
Publishers for Palestine said on Instagram that the attack on the owners and their store, “an important centre that has promoted Palestinian culture and books in Arabic for forty years, is part of Israel’s practice of cultural erasure and its larger genocidal project against Palestinians.”
(PC, MEMO)
