On a busy thoroughfare in East Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian part of the city, sits a literary oasis. The Educational Bookshop, run by Mahmoud Muna, himself a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, and his family, has long been regarded as one of the finest in the region. A pillar of Palestinian intellectual life, the shop on Salahuddin Street stocks anything from in-depth studies of Gaza to the latest bestsellers by Yuval Noah Harari. The only thing that is hard to find is a book that Mr Muna has not read, as your correspondent discovered during recent visits.
On the afternoon of February 9th Israeli police raided the shop on Salahuddin street along with another branch. They arrested Mr Muna and his nephew on charges of disturbing public order after initially accusing them of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism”. They were released from detention into house arrest on February 11th, following a court order issued the previous day. The sole evidence presented so far for the alleged offences is a children’s colouring book. Mr Muna’s brother said the police confiscated any book bearing a Palestinian flag and used Google Translate to search for references to “Palestine”.
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The raid and arrests have prompted outrage in the region and beyond. A group of Israeli intellectuals issued a statement condemning the raid, arguing it was part of a broader pattern of repression against freedom of expression. Palestinian public life in Jerusalem has been increasingly curtailed in recent years. Flying the Palestinian flag in public was banned in 2023. The construction of illegal Israeli settlements has accelerated dramatically since the war in Gaza erupted following Hamas’s massacre on October 7th 2023.
In this highly charged environment, Mr Muna’s bookshops continued to provide a rare space for dialogue in the divided city. He hosts lectures from Israeli authors and Palestinian dissidents alike. Just about everyone who passes through Jerusalem and works on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians knows him and his shop. Diplomats who have recently arrived in the city stop by for his recommendations. Journalists milk him for story ideas and bite-size analysis. “They’ll be really stuck if our bookshop goes out of business too,” he wrote in November 2023.
For now, that looks unlikely. Business was heaving in the days after the raid (Mr Muna’s brother opened the shop in his absence). Yet the scars left by it will undoubtedly linger. As Israel’s oldest civil-rights organisation put it: “A police raid on a bookstore and the arrest of its owners are reminiscent of dark periods in history.” ■
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