Anger, support after Israel arrests east Jerusalem booksellers

The arrest of two Palestinian booksellers in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem drew widespread condemnation on Monday, with supporters showing up at court and foreign governments expressing dismay.

About 60 people gathered in the morning outside the Jerusalem court where Mahmud and Ahmad Muna appeared for an arraignment, in a show of solidarity with the duo who were arrested on Sunday.

They both work for the Educational Bookshop, a cultural institution in east Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

Some Israeli rights groups showed their support for the Munas online, with one organisation, B'Tselem, calling on the authorities to "immediately release them from detention and stop persecuting Palestinian intellectuals".

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to Britain, urged the international community and publishers to push for their release.

Sami Abou Shahadeh, a historian and leader of an Arab nationalist party in Israel's parliament, asked in a post on X: "Why is it that Israel feels so threatened by books?"
Palestinians "may be entering a new stage of oppression, with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his people feeling that they have no red lines", said Abou Shahadeh.

Israeli officers searching the branches of the Educational Bookshop "arrested two residents of east Jerusalem suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism", the police said in a statement.

It said police were asking for an eight-day extension of the booksellers' detention, which the court granted -- for one day.

The statement also mentioned books on "nationalist Palestinian themes", including a colouring book titled "From the River to the Sea", an expression some see as a call for Israel's destruction and others view as a demand for Palestinian liberation and equality for all between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

The Muna family's lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said "hundreds of books" had been seized on Sunday including "history books, and the works of various writers including Israelis and internationals".

Several residents said they saw Israeli police at the shop on Sunday afternoon.

"It was for more than two hours," Hazem Abu Najib told AFP, calling the raid "crazy".

"It's a famous place, even Israelis come," he said.

"When I see that bookstores are attacked... I feel miserable."

Outside the court, the solidarity rally drew Israeli anti-government activists, political figures like Arab Israeli leader Ayman Odeh and regular clients at the Educational Bookshop.

Sidra Ezrahi, an Israeli-American in her 80s, called the arrests "unbelievable".

"We've been coming to this bookshop not for years but for generations," she said, adding the arrests were "exactly what fascist states are doing".

US writer Nathan Thrall held up a sign with the word "Palestine" written on it in Arabic, followed by "Confiscate me" in English.

"When the police came and raided this bookstore, they... took any book that had the word 'Palestine' on the cover," said Thrall.

"It is absolutely a continuation of a slide into authoritarianism... but it's a slide from a situation that was already totalitarian to begin with."

The European Union delegation "expressed deep concern at the Israeli police raid... and the arrests" of the Munas, in a statement on X.

The French consulate in Jerusalem denounced "a blatant attack... against basic democratic values".

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, said she was "shocked" by the raid that targeted "an intellectual lighthouse and family-run gem resisting Palestinian erasure under apartheid".

Odeh, the Munas' lawyer, told AFP that in recent years Israeli authorities have escalated their actions against Palestinian cultural institutions in east Jerusalem.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its "indivisible" capital, though the United Nations considers its annexation of the city's eastern sector illegal. The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state.

Meanwhile, the Educational Bookshop was open on Monday, according to AFP journalists, with relatives of the Munas saying they hoped that they would walk free on Tuesday.