Anger, support after Israel arrests Palestinian booksellers
Educational Bookshop workers Mahmud and Ahmad Muna allegedly sell books containing incitement and support for terrorism
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Educational Bookshop workers Mahmud and Ahmad Muna allegedly sell books containing incitement and support for terrorism
JERUSALEM (AFP) — 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 recognized by most of the international community.
Some Israeli rights groups showed their support for the Munas online, with one organization, B’Tselem, calling on the authorities to “immediately release them from detention and stop persecuting Palestinian intellectuals.”
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 coloring 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 Agence France-Presse, calling the raid “crazy.”
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