Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/10/israeli-police-raid-jerusalem-bookshops-and-arrest-palestinian-owners

Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners

Raid on Educational Bookshop branches described by rights groups as part of harassment campaign against Palestinian intellectuals

Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem
Mon 10 Feb 2025 09.25 EST

Israeli police have raided a leading Palestinian-owned bookshop in Jerusalem and detained two of its owners, citing a children’s colouring book as evidence of incitement to terrorism.

The police ransacked two branches of the Educational Bookshop on Sunday afternoon, using Google Translate to examine the stock then detaining Mahmoud Muna, 41, and his nephew Ahmed Muna, 33, on suspicion of “violating public order”.

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“They took any book that had a Palestinian icon or Palestinian flag, and tried to translate it using Google Translate,” Morad Muna, brother of Mahmoud, told the Guardian. “They even took a copy of Haaretz [an Israeli newspaper] as part of the search.”

Other books examined by the police included the artist Banksy’s Wall and Piece, Gaza in Crisis by the US academic Noam Chomsky and the Israeli scholar Ilan Pappé, and Love Wins by the Canadian film-maker and photographer Afzal Huda.

Rights groups and prominent intellectuals called for the men’s immediate release, describing the arrests as part of a broader attack on Palestinian cultural identity.

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