Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad were arrested by Israeli police on Sunday following a raid on their chain of Palestinian-owned bookshops in occupied East Jerusalem. The arrest of the men, who run three popular bookshops specializing in Middle Eastern history, culture, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has raised concerns among local cultural, journalistic, and diplomatic communities, many of whom have described the police action as excessive and unjustified.
The two men have been detained since Sunday under broad charges of disrupting public order. According to their lawyer, Nasser Odeh, the men were kept overnight in freezing conditions. Israeli authorities have also applied for house arrest, seeking to prevent them from returning to their Educational Bookshop locations.
The family-run bookstores, which cater to tourists, journalists, and diplomats, feature hundreds of publications in various languages. These stores are central to the cultural fabric of Jerusalem. However, on Sunday afternoon, plainclothes police raided two of the bookshops on Salah ad-Din Street without warning. The officers reportedly used translation apps to remove any publications containing the words “Palestine” or “Palestinian” in the title, as well as those displaying the Palestinian flag in red, green, and white.
The books seized included recent publications discussing the Gaza conflict, works by the renowned artist Banksy, and a children’s coloring book about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In a statement, Israeli police claimed the two men were arrested on suspicion of selling books that incite and support terrorism. They further stated that they would continue to target material that could be perceived as a threat to Israeli citizens’ security.
This justification has sparked outrage from supporters and customers of the bookshops, who see the raid as another attack on Palestinian cultural institutions, following previous actions against theatres and educational facilities. Nathan Thrall, an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a friend of the Muna family, condemned the raid, stating that it was part of an ongoing effort to suppress Palestinian nationalism in East Jerusalem. He noted, “Only an ideology as thin as paper is threatened by the words on a page.”
Chants for the men’s release echoed outside their court hearing, with many drawing parallels between the confiscation of books and historical actions by authoritarian regimes that targeted free speech and minority rights. Despite the men remaining in custody, one of the bookstores reopened, and several supporters gathered to show their solidarity.
This incident continues to fuel calls for the immediate release of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, with growing diplomatic support from European and global consulates in Jerusalem.
