This post is adapted by permission from the author’s blog post at the Times of Israel, where there is also an audio version. The photo is from the Educational Bookshop’s website.
I was shocked to hear that the Israeli police raided the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, claiming that it was “disturbing the peace”! But it is the most peaceful place possible. And Mahmoud Muna is a most peace loving and friendly man. He was detained along with his nephew for two days and will reportedly remain under house arrest for a few days.
There is no comparable source in Israel for books, primarily in English, on Israeli and Palestinian affairs and the conflict, by Israeli, Palestinian and international writers. Anyone doing research, or simply interested in learning more about those subjects, knows that this is the main source for such books.
I was recently looking for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall. Despite the fact that the Jewish author lives in Jerusalem, the book was not available in the stores of the two main Israeli bookstore chains, Steimatzky and Tsomet Sefarim. I found it at the Educational Bookshop.
“Dangerous Books” by two non-violent activists
When I was there two weeks ago, I bought the new memoir by Palestinian human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab, one of the leaders of Nonviolence International, The Truth Shall Set You Free. The subtitle notes that the book is “The Story of a Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer Working for Peace & Justice in Palestine/Israel.” Of course, it’s not available in the two Israeli chains. The previous book I bought at the Educational Bookshop a few months ago was written by Kuttab’s lawyer colleague, Raja Shedhadeh, What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?, a National Book Award Finalist.
And the question really is what do the Israeli police fear from books about Palestine and Israel? Even though the racist Itamar Ben-Gvir is no longer (meanwhile?) the Minister of National Security in charge of the police, his spirit still seems to guide their actions.
Flags and Watermelons
They confiscated every book that had a Palestinian flag on it — despite the fact that it is not illegal to fly the flag. When Ehud Olmert was Prime Minister he flew the flag over the prime minister’s residence on Balfour Street when he hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for one of their 36 meetings. What’s next? Will the police confiscate all of the watermelons this summer because they contain the Red, Green, White and Black colors of the Palestinian flag?
When I met Mahmoud Muna a few weeks ago, I asked him if they had a copy of Yahya Sinwar’s novel, The Thorn and the Carnation. He said it was sensitive. The book is actually available as a pdf in English translation on-line. I plan to read it, and I think every Israeli should be curious to understand the mind and thoughts of the vicious Hamas leader, who went out of his way while a prisoner to learn Hebrew and try to understand Israeli society.
Dangerous Signs
Back in 2016, on Holocaust Memorial Day, then IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, now chair of The Democrats Party [the new electoral union of the Labor and Meretz parties], said the following (which sank the likelihood of his appointment as Chief of Staff):
If there’s something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance, it’s the recognition of the revolting processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then –- 70, 80 and 90 years ago –- and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016.
Well, in 2025, the signs are growing.
It was heartening to see that diplomatic representatives from many countries, alongside peace-loving Israelis, declared their support for the owners of the bookshops. German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert wrote that
I, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at Educational Bookshop. I know its owners, the Muna family, to be peace-loving proud Palestinian Jerusalemites, open for discussion and intellectual exchange.
All of us peace-loving Israelis, who believe in a free exchange of ideas, know that we cannot remain silent or passive in the face of this travesty.