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Monday, February 10, 2025

2025: Israeli undercover forces raid East Jerusalem's Educational Bookshop—an intellectual lighthouse and family-run gem resisting Palestinian erasure under apartheid: Israel is now detaining booksellers for the crime of... selling books.

Shocked by Israeli forces' raid on East Jerusalem's Educational Bookshop—an intellectual lighthouse and family-run gem resisting Palestinian erasure under apartheid. Internationals in Jerusalem: please show up, stand with the Muna family, and protect this vital hub. Don't leave them alone!
 
Here are some of the books that were taken during the search
Feb. 9 2025 Israeli undercover agents have kidnapped Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, owners of the renowned “Educational Bookshop” in East Jerusalem, a cultural landmark for over 40 years. The shop was ransacked, and books were seized during the raid. The brother of the owners told Haaretz: "They went through the books with Google Translate and took away anything they didn't like.” ... “They took every book with the Palestinian flag on it”

The Police presented as evidence this "coloring book of incitement"

PalMedia  Compare and Contrast: Bookstore owners Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna vs Netanyahu.

 
Israel is now detaining booksellers for the crime of ... selling books.

The Educational Bookshop is not just another bookstore. Every diplomat, journalist, or researcher of Jerusalem and the conflict knows these stores and their owner, Mahmoud Muna
 

"We condemn in the strongest terms the arrest of my friends Mahmoud Muna and Ahmad Muna, Palestinian booksellers and owners of Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop, by Israel’s occupation authorities. 

 
 The arrests of Mahmoud and Ahmad is a stark reminder of the ongoing campaign to censor knowledge, stifle free speech and information that challenges Israel’s occupation of Palestine and in this case, Israel’s illegal colonial occupation of #Jerusalem and its oppressive measures in the city. Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of all just societies. There is no genuine peace without the freedom to read, and no freedom to read without booksellers able to carry out their work in safety. 
 
We stand firm in our support of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, and all Palestinian detainees, and call on our colleagues and partners in the international community, including the publishing industry and the book trade, in the U.K. and beyond, to join us in calling for their immediate release."
Husam Zomlot -Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the UK. Former Ambassdor to the United States. @hzomlot

Husam Zomlot in East Jerusalem Education Book Shop

 
Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad are currently in court, arrested by Israelis for being booksellers. This is Mahmoud last autumn @StanfordsTravel signing copies of Daybreak in Gaza with his co-editors. Everyone in publishing should be screaming about this!
 

In The Guardian -Mahmoud Muna, one of the owners of East Jerusalem's historical Educational Bookshop seen inside a branch of the store. Muna is an editor of the book 'Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture', in Jerusalem, Palestine, 23 Jul 2024 Photograph: Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

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

2 comments:

  1. David Issacharoff
    @davidiss
    The Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem is full with shoppers in solidarity a day after the Israel Police raided the Palestinian store, arrested its owners and confiscated books. They dropped the charges of incitement but still detain them for ‘disturbing the public order’

    ReplyDelete
  2. Booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna are now both free from Israeli Police custody. They were kept in jail for a second night for no reason: neither was interrogated again after the police asked for an eight day extension of their detention. No charges.

    ReplyDelete