Israeli police seize books during raid on East Jerusalem bookshop run by Palestinian family

Israeli police raided a bookstore run by Palestinians and arrested two members of the family that has operated the store for more than four decades, with the items seized including a children’s coloring book.

Mahmoud Muna and Ahmad Muna appeared in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Monday, charged with disrupting public order, following the raid on their family bookstore on Sunday afternoon.

The bookstore, called the Educational Bookshop, has been a literary haven in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem since 1984, selling books about Palestinian and Middle Eastern culture and current affairs.

On Sunday afternoon, Israeli police, armed with a search warrant, raided the two bookstores, searched the shelves, and confiscated hundreds of books by Palestinian authors, as well as books with related titles and images. "They thought there were dangerous things in the bookstore," Murad Muna, Mahmoud's brother and Ahmad's uncle, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“They started searching for one hour, just throwing books on the floor … they don't understand what the books are saying, so they used Google Translate to understand. Almost all the books are in English, written by Israeli, Palestinian and European writers. They talk about the conflict, they have both sides of the story that they have a problem with,” Murad Muna said. Many of the books were returned, but about eight were kept by police as evidence to be presented to the court. This included a coloring book by a South African illustrator called "From the River to the Sea," a title that refers to a slogan of Palestinian resistance.

"Why are you worried about it? Why are you upset?" Mahmoud's wife, Mai, asked outside the court. Ms. Muna was also inside the court as her husband and nephew were brought into the courtroom after spending a night in police detention in Jerusalem's Russian Compound precinct. "Mahmoud looked a little tired, Ahmad too, but I know they are strong enough," she said.

Nasser Odeh, who represented the two men in court, argued that they were wrongly detained. "We will appeal for their immediate release because this is a political detention, not a legal detention. [The police] claim that the accusation is disturbing public order … they claim that they are selling political books that do not conform to the Israeli political point of view. We think this is a violation of the right of citizens to express their opinions, which is protected under international law and Israeli law," he told reporters.

Police said that the bookstore contained many books "containing inciting material with Palestinian nationalist themes," and directly referenced the coloring book. "The Israeli police will continue to work to prevent incitement and support for terrorism, and to arrest those involved in criminal acts that threaten the safety of Israeli citizens," police said in a statement. Prosecutors asked the court to detain the men for another eight days. The judge only agreed to extend their detention by 24 hours, and said they could be released under strict conditions on Tuesday local time, including five days of house arrest and a 15-day ban from entering the bookstore.

In court, the two men's defense lawyer said that their arrest immediately reminded him of two moments in history. "The first is in 1258, when the Mongols invaded Baghdad in Iraq. They invaded the libraries — they confiscated the books, burned them, and threw many of them into the Tigris River, hoping, according to writers and historians, to control knowledge and thought," Mr. Odeh said in court. "The second event is — and I'm not comparing, it's important for me to emphasize that, Your Honor — but in Germany in 1933, in the persecution of the Jewish community, they arrested writers, artists, because they were afraid that this art would criticize all the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against Jews and others."

Supporters of the two men gathered outside the court, holding banners and megaphones, chanting slogans calling Israel a "fascist state," and holding signs reading "Cowards Confiscate Books." Pulitzer Prize winner Nathan Thrall, whose book "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama" was launched at the Educational Bookshop, was among them. He said he was outraged by the search, but not surprised. "It's part of a documented growing authoritarianism. But what's really important to stress is that when we talk about authoritarianism here, we're not implicitly describing [Israel] as a democracy sliding into authoritarianism. Any country that has ruled millions of people for decades, depriving them of basic rights based on inherent characteristics, does not fit any definition of democracy that I know," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Muna family was determined to reopen the bookstore on Monday, even while Mahmoud and Ahmad remained in police detention. "Our business is more than just a business to make money — I mean, it's an idea, we have a cause we need to fight for. We know that even if we have to pay the price, we should continue because we are on the right side," Murad said.