Arrest of Palestinian booksellers sparks Jerusalem protest
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The protesters shouted slogans denouncing Israel as a “fascist state” and held placards accusing the country of “cowardice”.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
JERUSALEM - Dozens of people gathered outside a Jerusalem court on Jan 10 to protest against the arrest of two Palestinian booksellers in the city’s east, occupied by Israel since 1967 and later annexed.
The protesters shouted slogans denouncing Israel as a “fascist state” and held placards accusing the country of “cowardice”.
Mahmud and Ahmad Muna, who were arrested on Jan 10, were to appear in the court for an arraignment.
Both work for the Educational Bookshop, a cultural institution in east Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem District police officers have arrested two residents of east Jerusalem suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism,” the police said in a statement.
During the operation, the police found books on “nationalist Palestinian themes”, the statement said, adding police were asking the court for an extension of the booksellers’ detention.
It also cited "From the Jordan to the Sea", without further explanation.
The expression "From the River to the Sea" is a hotly disputed phrase in Israel, often taken as a call for Israel's destruction and a denial of its right to exist, although many Palestinians dispute that.
It has figured prominently in rallies around the world in support of Palestinians during the war in Gaza between Israel and the militant group Hamas, now paused by a ceasefire.
The Muna family’s lawyer, Mr Nasser Odeh, said “hundreds of books” had been seized on Jan 9.
Supporters visit an Educational Bookshop, after Israeli police raided two Educational Bookshops and made arrests.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ms Sidra Ezrahi, an Israeli-American taking part in the demonstration, called the arrests “unbelievable”.
“We’ve been coming to this bookshop not for years but for generations,” the protester in her 80s said, adding the arrests were “exactly what fascist states are doing”.
Popular with foreign diplomats, aid workers and tourists, the bookshop has also played an important part in Palestinian intellectual life and the arrests were seen as a blow against the wider cultural environment of the city.
"I, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at Educational Bookshop," German Ambassador Steffen Seibert wrote on social media platform X. "I know its owners, the Muna family, to be peace-loving proud Palestinian Jerusalemites."
On Feb 10, the shutters were closed on the main branch of the shop and demonstrators gathered outside the courtroom where a hearing over a police request to extend the Muna's detention by eight days was being held.
Their lawyer Nasser Odeh said Mahmoud and Ahmad were charged with disturbing public order. The court ordered their release from detention but placed them under house arrest.
"The attempt to crush the Palestinian people includes the harassment and arrest of intellectuals," Israeli rights group B'Tselem said in a statement.
The shops are located in East Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally.
Ms Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, also condemned the raid.
“Shocked by Israeli forces’ raid on East Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop – an intellectual lighthouse and family-run gem resisting Palestinian erasure under apartheid,” she wrote on X.
“Internationals in Jerusalem: please show up, stand with the Muna family, and protect this vital hub,” she added. AFP, REUTERS
