Mahmoud Muna inside a branch of the Educational Bookshop chain in East Jerusalem in July 2024.
Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
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Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
For Mahmoud and Murad Muna, East Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop is the backdrop of many of their earliest memories.
“I crawled, walked and learned to speak in the bookshop,” Mahmoud Muna said in an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition.
The Educational Bookshop is a family business — Mahmoud manages one of the store’s locations. The other store, located right across the street, is run by his nephew, Ahmad Muna. So on Sunday, when Mahmoud’s ten-year old daughter wanted to do her homework and help around at the store, Mahmoud was excited.
“I was very pleased because this is, in a way, integrating her in the life of the bookshop,” he said. “So I said yes. And unfortunately it was a bad choice.”
That same day, the Israeli police raided the store, confiscated books and arrested Mahmoud. Police also went to the other store and arrested Ahmad.
A statement from the Israeli police said that the two men were “suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism at bookstores in Jerusalem.”
The statement also said that “detectives encountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes, including a children’s coloring book titled ‘From the Jordan to the Sea.'”
Police added that they “will continue its efforts to thwart incitement and support for terrorism, as well as apprehend those involved in offenses that threaten the security of Israel’s citizens.”
Mahmoud Muna told NPR’s Leila Fadel that the police took any book with a Palestinian flag on it. They were also looking for books that mention the word “occupation” or had any kind of map on it.
Mahmoud said the bookstores have a wide collection of books from all over the world and do not cater to a specific viewpoint or ideology.
“We have books that present the Palestinian story, sure,” Mahmoud said. “We also have books that present part of the Israeli story as well. This is not my personal wishlist of a library. This is a bookstore that presents different voices along different political lines for different readership to read and learn things that they did not know.”
