Palestinian booksellers released to house arrest after police raid sparks outcry
No charges filed against owners of prominent East Jerusalem bookshop; raid prompts diplomats’ condemnation; police found children’s coloring book titled ‘From the River to the Sea’
Two prominent Palestinian booksellers were released on Tuesday to five days of house arrest after a controversial police raid on their East Jerusalem bookstore chain.
Officers raided the Educational Bookshop on Sunday, arresting owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad on allegations they sold books containing “incitement and support for terrorism.”
The store is known among foreign diplomats, researchers and expats in Jerusalem for its wide array of English-language books that focus on Palestinian identity and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Police pointed to a children’s coloring book they found in the shop, titled “From the River to the Sea,” as evidence.
Upon his release, Ahmad spoke of a “brutal, hard arrest” with an “unclear basis.” He and his uncle were barred from setting foot in any of the Educational Bookshop’s locations for another 20 days.
The younger Muna told The Times of Israel that his uncle was detained separately in the Russian Compound detention center, while he spent two nights at a police station.
Educational Bookshop owner Ahmad Muna released to five-day house arrest after two nights in detention
He says he and his uncle Mahmoud were held in separate locations pic.twitter.com/Pj7wvUJiLv
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) February 11, 2025
Murad Muna, Mahmoud’s brother, told Haaretz Monday that police seized dozens of books from two of the store’s locations, on a search warrant granted by Judge Chavi Tucker of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
“They used Google Translate on the books, and anything they didn’t like, they took,” he said. “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.”
Police have since returned all of the confiscated books save for 10 titles.
A small protest took place Monday morning outside the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court during a hearing to extend the booksellers’ detention. In attendance were Hadash-Ta’al party chair Ayman Odeh, as well as the Pulitzer-winning author author Nathan Thrall.
The raid and arrests also sparked outcry from a number of foreign diplomats, who took to social media to express their indignation.
Attending today’s court hearing, ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????, joined by ???????? ????????, expressed deep concern at the Israeli police raid against the @Edu_Bookshop in East Jerusalem and the arrests of their employees, Ahmad and Mahmoud Muna. This raid is an attack against freedom of… pic.twitter.com/jMUHK8OWEn
— France à Jérusalem ???????? ???????? (@FranceJerusalem) February 10, 2025
On X, German ambassador Steffen Seibert came out against the arrests and declared himself a patron of the bookshop.
“I know its [the bookstore’s] owners, the Muna family, to be peace-loving proud Palestinian Jerusalemites, open for discussion and intellectual exchange,” he said Monday. “I am concerned to hear of the raid and their detention in prison.
British ambassador Simon Walters echoed the sentiment, lauding the institution as a “key part of cultural life in East Jerusalem” and calling the raid disproportionate to the concerns police raised in court.
Law enforcement requested that the two booksellers be held in custody for a further eight days, but the court on Monday granted an extension of only one day.
The owners were formally suspected of disrupting public order rather than of incitement, since the latter would have required approval by prosecutors. No charges have been filed against them.
