Since years, the Palestinian-owned educational bookstore in East Jerusalem has been a rare island in a rapidly divided city, but Israeli police raids at the store this week have feared the pressure of a free speech.
While the well -known store and its small branch were open across the road on Tuesday, the spies seized books in the trash and arrested two members of the owner’s family. The incident has raised widespread concerns about the status of common places, where Israelis and Palestinians can come together and discuss peacefully.
“I, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at the educational bookstore. I know its owners, the Mona family, that they are peaceful proud Palestinian Jerusalemites, who discussed discussions and intellectual exchanges. Open for, “German Ambassador to Israel Stephen Seburt said. A post on x.
He added, “I am concerned about the raid and his detention in jail.
The store, which was founded on Salahuddin Street by the Mona Family in 1984, sells books in many languages ​​that are largely focused on the Middle East and Israeli Palestinian conflict, and a long -term intellectual in the region. Known as an oasis from which readers are known as readers. Can share ideas in political division.
From Sunday afternoon, security footage in which the Mona family shared with NBC News shows that simple colors officers rifles through books and take some of them into the garbage bag. –
During the raid on the basic English language store, the officers also arrested the manager, Mahmood Mona and his nephew Ahmed. After that the two have been released.
Mahmud’s brother, Murad, said that the police have taken books with the Palestinian flag or the image hidden on them and they have used Google translation to help understand what the material is saying.
“In our book, anyone belonging to any religion, from any side, can say his opinion without fear. He can discuss anything.
He added, “On the west of Jerusalem, there are books in English bookstores that we have, and you will never hear that they have arrested the owners.”
An Israeli police spokesman said the two were arrested on suspicion of selling books containing provocations and co -operation for terrorism at bookstores in Jerusalem.
Police added that spies have seized from a store containing “numerous books”, pointing to a children’s colorful book titled “From the River to Sea” by South African author Nethy Nigubin. Police added that they also raided a book shop in the old city of Jerusalem last week, which included materials supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State group.
The title of a colored book is also a Palestinian pro -slogan, which is often used in protests against Israel, and refers to the geographical territory between the Jordanian River and the Mediterranean, which surrounds Israel and Palestinian territories.
The American Jewish Committee said on its website that the slogan could be “called for the end of the state of Israel and for the ethnic cleansing of Jews living there,” while the South African Jewish Board of Deputy protesters protested the book’s publication. When it was initially released.
Waseem Khalis, owner of the clothing store at the front door of the educational bookstore, said he was drinking coffee at the bookstore around 3pm local time when four simple officers entered. He said that after a few minutes, the officers shook the warrant and asked the consumers to leave, while another group of officers went to another store owned by the family across the road.
“It was very strange,” he said. “This is not a new store. It’s been for decades. They took things that were very common and can be found anywhere on the Internet.
About 10 diplomats, including people from the European Union and the UK, were sitting on a debate on the date of the release of Mann in the district court of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, supporters of the educational bookstore wrote about their alarm in an online raid, which accumulates a small number outside the court.
“We are afraid that raiding the store, seizing books, and the pretext of ‘violation of public discipline’ is the provocation of a government that eliminates the Palestinian cultural story and involved in it. Is designed to harass, “Israeli writer Alan Shenfield said in a post on X.
Personally, one of the protesters was Galt Samuel, who was an Israeli patron, who traveled from Tel Aviv to stay there. “They are both men of peace, and they are promoting Palestinian culture in a peaceful way,” he said of Mann.
“It is unimaginable that such people were arrested and seized books,” he added. “This is an intense attack on free speech and free thinking.”
