- Police said the raid followed a complaint from a man who visited the bookshop and claimed to have seen books containing inflammatory content.
- In February, an educational bookshop in East Jerusalem was raided amid similar allegations, sparking an international outcry.
LONDON: Israeli police have raided a major Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem for the second time in a month, seizing dozens of books and arresting one of the owners.
Local reports said co-owner Imad Muna, 61, was detained for several hours after Israeli officers arrived at the Educational Bookshop on Tuesday morning without a warrant. During the raid, they confiscated about 50 books after searching them using Google Translate.
“At 11:15 a.m., the police arrived at the store and my parents were there at the time,” said Muna's son Ahmad. “The police asked for business licenses and checked the books. I arrived but they wouldn't let me in. They looked through the books, made a pile of books, and they took them.”
In February, police arrested Ahmad and Muna's brother, Mahmoud, holding them for several days without the state prosecutor's approval to open an investigation. They were later placed under house arrest for five days but were not charged.
In the first raid, police used a children's colouring book as evidence of incitement to terrorism.
Similar to the latest incident, authorities confiscated books based on titles, appearances and authors, including works by British artist Banksy, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé and American academic Noam Chomsky. Books containing visual elements related to Palestine were also confiscated.
“They would pick books by their covers, picking books with the Palestinian flag or just the word 'Palestine' in the title,” said another of Muna's brothers, Morad. “They would use Google Translate and take photos to send to their bosses.”
Police said the second raid followed a complaint from a man who had visited the bookstore earlier that day, claiming to have seen books with inflammatory content. Officers detained Muna “to verify his identity and details of the store,” police said, adding that they were reviewing three books seized in the operation.
“Based on the findings, a decision will be made to refer the case to the State Attorney's Office for further investigation into the alleged sale of inflammatory materials,” the statement said.
After Muna was released on Tuesday afternoon, most of the books were returned and the store reopened.
However, the bookstore owners said the raids were part of a growing effort by Israeli authorities to suppress Palestinian culture and should not be viewed as isolated incidents.
Human rights groups and intellectuals condemned the first raid as an attempt to create a “culture of fear” among Palestinians and an attack on free speech.
