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For decades, the Educational Bookshop has been a cultural cornerstone of East Jerusalem, its two outlets hosting foreign diplomats, feting prominent authors and providing readers with both sides of the story in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.<\/p>\n
This weekend, the Israeli police raided the stores and arrested two members of the family that owns the business who were working at the time after concluding that books being sold there \u2014 including a children\u2019s coloring book \u2014 could incite violence. The police said they seized a number of books in the raids on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The shops were initially closed on Monday, but later opened despite a judge ordering the two men, Mahmood Muna and Ahmed Muna, to remain in detention until Tuesday morning amid a police investigation. They were also ordered to be held under house arrest for five days following their release and banned from returning to their bookshops for 15 days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Murad Muna, a relative of the two men and who reopened one of the stores on Monday afternoon, denied that the books sold there promoted violence. In fact, he said, the books passed Israeli censors when they were imported from abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe believe that this is a political, not a legal detention,\u201d the lawyer for the two arrested men, Nasser Oday, said outside the courthouse in Jerusalem after the hearing.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the police said the shops were searched on Sunday for books suspected of containing \u201cinciting content.\u201d It said detectives \u201cencountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes, including a children\u2019s coloring book titled \u2018From the Jordan to the Sea.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The slogan \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d<\/a> has long been a rallying cry for Palestinian nationalism and is usually interpreted by Israelis as a denial of their country\u2019s right to exist.<\/p>\n Mahmood Muna\u2019s wife, Mai Muna, was in the courtroom on Monday as her husband was brought before the judge after spending the night in jail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey started throwing books off the shelves,\u201d Ms. Muna said in a phone interview on Monday, describing the raids. \u201cThey were looking for anything with a Palestinian flag.\u201d<\/p>\n But hours later, one of the shops was jammed with customers and supporters as Murad Muna tried to keep up with nonstop sales that he said were a sign of solidarity.<\/p>\n \u201cToday is overbusy,\u201d Mr. Muna said from behind the cash register. If the Israeli authorities were seeking to make Palestinians fearful, he said, \u201cThis is our answer.\u201d<\/p>\n The arrests reflected how Israel is tightening restrictions on free speech and cultural activities for Palestinians across the country. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli police have increasingly arrested Palestinian<\/a> citizens of Israel on charges of incitement to terror on social media and have shut down film screenings critical of the Israeli military or government in Haifa and Jaffa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Educational Bookshop outlets are in East Jerusalem, a part of the city that Israel captured from Jordan in 1967 and later annexed. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital but most East Jerusalem residents are Palestinians, and the United Nations has deemed it occupied territory.<\/p>\n Over the years, the Muna family\u2019s stores have hosted talks, film screenings and book launches, including one last July for the Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cA Day in the Life of Abed Salama\u201d at another shop that they own nearby.<\/p>\n Its author, Nathan Thrall, was among a small crowd of protesters on Monday who gathered across from the entrance to the courthouse during the hearing. He and his wife, Judy, heard about the arrests through social media and WhatsApp groups.<\/p>\n He said the arrests will send \u201ca very strong message\u201d about police authority.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reflects a boldness, a sense that there will be absolutely no consequences, that they have total impunity, that they can go after two of the most well connected Palestinians in East Jerusalem,\u201d Mr. Thrall said.<\/p>\n David Grossman, a prominent Israeli novelist, said he knew Mahmood Muna and had visited his shop. \u201cHis arrest is outrageous,\u201d he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The police also confiscated several books as part of the investigation. They did not return repeated calls and messages on Monday about their titles, content or how they were deemed offensive.<\/p>\n Diplomats<\/a> from nine European countries, plus the European Union, attended the court hearing on Monday to show support for the two men. \u201cI, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at Educational Bookshop,\u201d the German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, said in a social media post<\/a>. \u201dI am concerned to hear of the raid and their detention in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n An Israeli human rights group, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said the arrests were another step in efforts to intimidate and silence Palestinians by the Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n In a statement, the group added that the raids and arrests \u201ccannot be separated from the unprecedented number of interrogations and arrests of Palestinians over expression-related offenses, nor from the broader trend of silencing the Palestinian voice and any social initiative or activity.\u201d<\/p>\n Standing among the protesters at the courthouse, Eliana Padwa said she had visited the bookstores often since moving to Jerusalem from New York.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been huge in my journey throughout the years, politically, learning about Palestine,\u201d said Ms. Padwa, 26. \u201cThey provided a safe space for me to learn about this, to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n