Brother of bookshop owners recount Israeli raid and arrest

No.

14498

Date

10 February, 2025

Found by

+972mag

Location

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Original Social Media Post

"Yesterday at 3 p.m., police raided two branches of the "Educational Bookshop" bookstores in East Jerusalem, confiscating books and wreaking havoc in the store. The store owners, Mahmoud andAhmed Muna, were taken into custody in the Russian Compound. At a court hearing this morning, the police requested an extension of their detention to 8 days. Their detention was extended by one day only. Many diplomats and journalists attended the hearing, due to their personal acquaintance with the store and its owners. The store is known as a rich source for studying the Palestinian culture and the history of the Palestinian conflict. As is known, Israeli law does not prohibit the sale of books that are sold anywhere else in the world, so the reason for the arrest was a violation of public order. Last week, a 30-day closure order was imposed on another bookstore in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation authorities are operating another channel of oppression against the Palestinians: an attempt to suppress Palestinian culture and its heritage. It seems that this time the opposite result has been achieved. The arrest of cultural symbols has led to their glorification, not oppression. Intimidatio attempts will not help." - Source

Tags

Archivist Notes: Raid of renowned bookstores

Israeli police raided two Educational Bookshop stores in east Jerusalem, ransacked them, confiscated books, and detained the owners, brothers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna

The brother of the owners told Haaretz that police "went through the books with Google Translate and took away anything they didn't like. They even came across the Haaretz newspaper with the picture of the kidnapped people, asked what it was, and said it was incitement. They took every book with the Palestinian flag on it."

On February 10, the police requested an extension of their detention to 8 days at a court hearing. Their detention was extended by one day only. Several diplomats and journalists attended the hearing, due to their acquaintance with the store and its owners, renowned for being a rich source for the study of the Palestinian culture and the history of the Palestinian struggle.

List of confiscated books:

  • Lisa Tataki - Living Palestine: Family, Survival, Resistance, and Mobility under Occupation
  • Sami Adwan - Side by side
  • Dan Cohen Sherbok, Dawoud El-Alami - The Palestine Israeli Conflict
  • Michael Riordon - Our way to fight: Peace-Work under Siege in Israel-Palestine
  • Afzal Huda - Love Wins
  • Banksy - Wall and Piece different authors - Profile of an Occupation
  • Clare Solomon, Tania Palmier - Springtime: The New Student Rebellions
  • Hussein Nashwan - The Memory of Color, Jerusalem with brush of the Palestinian artist
  • Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe - Gaza in Crisis
  • Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison - Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Persperctives on the Israeli occupation
  • Ari Shavit - My Promised Land
  • Mohammed Zahid - The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Succession Crisis: The Politics of Liberalisation and Reform in the Middle East

The details for each video come from social media. None of it has been verified.