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The police said the stores were selling books that supported terrorism and that two members of the family who owned the business had been arrested. A lawyer said their detention was “political” rather than legal.
One of the shuttered bookshops after a raid by the Israeli police in East Jerusalem on Monday. The stores opened again later in the day. Credit… Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press Feb. 10, 2025 Updated 2:47 p.m. ET
For decades, the Educational Bookshop has been a cultural cornerstone of East Jerusalem, its two outlets hosting foreign diplomats, feting prominent authors and providing readers with both sides of the story in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
This weekend, the Israeli police raided the stores and arrested two members of the family that owns the business who were working at the time after concluding that books being sold there — including a children’s coloring book — could incite violence. The police said they seized a number of books in the raids on Sunday.
The shops were initially closed on Monday, but later opened despite a judge ordering the two men, Mahmood Muna and Ahmed Muna, to remain in detention until Tuesday morning amid a police investigation. They were also ordered to be held under house arrest for five days following their release and banned from returning to their bookshops for 15 days.
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Famous Palestinian Bookshop in Jerusalem Reopens After Israeli Raid Murad Muna, a brother of one of the bookshop owners detained in an Israeli police raid on the famous Educational Bookshop store in Jerusalem, said he was surprised by the crowd that showed up in solidarity after he reopened the store. “Is it usually this busy?” “No, today is over-busy.” “And why do you think that is?” “We were surprised from the solidarity of the people from all over the world and the local people.”
Murad Muna, a brother of one of the bookshop owners detained in an Israeli police raid on the famous Educational Bookshop store in Jerusalem, said he was surprised by the crowd that showed up in solidarity after he reopened the store. Credit Credit… Lara Jakes/The New York Times Murad Muna, a relative of the two men and who reopened one of the stores on Monday afternoon, denied that the books sold there promoted violence. In fact, he said, the books passed Israeli censors when they were imported from abroad.
“We believe that this is a political, not a legal detention,” the lawyer for the two arrested men, Nasser Oday, said outside the courthouse in Jerusalem after the hearing.
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