An Israeli raid of a famous Palestinian bookstore stokes censorship fears

For Mahmoud and Murad Muna, East Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop is the backdrop of many of their earliest memories.

“I crawled, walked and learned to speak in the bookshop,” Mahmoud Muna said in an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The Educational Bookshop is a family business — Mahmoud manages one of the store’s locations. The other store, located right across the street, is run by his nephew, Ahmad Muna. So on Sunday, when Mahmoud’s ten-year old daughter wanted to do her homework and help around at the store, Mahmoud was excited.

“I was very pleased because this is, in a way, integrating her in the life of the bookshop,” he said. “So I said yes. And unfortunately it was a bad choice.”

That same day, the Israeli police raided the store, confiscated books and arrested Mahmoud. Police also went to the other store and arrested Ahmad.

A statement from the Israeli police said that the two men were “suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism at bookstores in Jerusalem.”

The statement also said that “detectives encountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes, including a children’s coloring book titled ‘From the Jordan to the Sea.'”

Police added that they “will continue its efforts to thwart incitement and support for terrorism, as well as apprehend those involved in offenses that threaten the security of Israel’s citizens.”

Mahmoud Muna told NPR’s Leila Fadel that the police took any book with a Palestinian flag on it. They were also looking for books that mention the word “occupation” or had any kind of map on it.

Mahmoud said the bookstores have a wide collection of books from all over the world and do not cater to a specific viewpoint or ideology.

“We have books that present the Palestinian story, sure,” Mahmoud said. “We also have books that present part of the Israeli story as well. This is not my personal wishlist of a library. This is a bookstore that presents different voices along different political lines for different readership to read and learn things that they did not know.”

Unlike Israeli Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinians in East Jerusalem—where the bookshops are located—are subjected to a different set of laws and face restrictions on residency rights, land ownership, and political participation. The United Nations has consistently affirmed that Israel’s annexation and settlement of East Jerusalem since 1967 are illegal. Palestinians have been forcibly evicted from their homes in the area for years. Amnesty International has labeled Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the area as apartheid, a charge Israel denies.

This is not the first time the Israeli police have cracked down on speech in the country. Since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, the government has ordered a boycott of left-leaning Israeli newspapers, such as Haaretz, accused journalists of militant activity and banned a Palestinian movie from playing in theaters.

But arresting bookstore owners was a line that Murad Muna never thought the police would cross.

“Even in our dreams, we didn’t think it would happen,” Murad said. “The Israelis always say that we are the best, the only democracy in the Middle East. We have freedom of speech. So we believe in that until that day. We don’t believe it any more.”

“I was immediately assumed guilty”

The police raid occurred on Sunday afternoon, according to Mahmoud. He said about seven detectives showed up with a warrant saying they had a right to search the store for materials that could incite violence.

“I asked the question on what is the criteria to decide if something is inciting or not? And they said that they know their job,” Mahmoud said.

Mahmoud said the officers took books by Noam Chomsky, a Jewish author who has criticized Israel in the past, along with any book that said the word Palestine on it — including a book about mountain climbing in the region.

After collecting books from both stores, the officers arrested the two men.

The two spent about 48 hours in prison. Mahmoud described the conditions as inhuman and unprofessional, saying he was shoved and kicked by prison guards and police inside the Russian Compound, where he was held.

“I was in a cell with ten people in a space of maximum four by four meters, constantly being insulted and constantly being humiliated by the guards.”

Mahmoud said that everyone in the cell with him was Palestinian, and the guards assumed they were all terrorists.

“In all places, you are innocent until proven guilty,” Mahmoud said. “The condition I was in, I was immediately assumed guilty.”

Israeli police did not respond to an NPR request for comment on the conditions of Mahmoud’s detention.

What’s next for the Educational Bookshop branches?

Both Mahmoud and Ahmad were released on bail but remain under house arrest for five days and are banned from their stores for two weeks after that. Mahmoud said most of the books were also returned to the shops, but a few were kept by the police. He suspects they may still be building a case against him.

Both bookstores are open. Murad, who is managing the bookstores while Mahmoud and Ahmad are on house arrest, says that they have been overcrowded with visitors since the arrests.

“Yesterday we got a customer who came specially from Tel Aviv to say, [he is] ashamed of [his] country and what they did,” Murad said.

The outpouring of support has meant a lot to the Munas, but Mahmoud is worried about what this means for cultural institutions in East Jerusalem and beyond.

What does this police raid mean for free speech in Jerusalem and the West Bank?

Mahmoud believes that the raid on the Educational Bookshop is just another step in Israel’s mission to censor Palestinian voices. He says that in recent years, the right wing government in Israel has been targeting cultural institutions, and that the raiding of the book store is another attack on free speech.

“This is, in a way, a sequence of events that is now coming to books and coming to bookstores. I hope this will be the end of it,” he said.