Israel sees terrorism in books – even coloring books, arrests Palestinian bookshop owners

Academics, writers, and diplomats demand that Israel release Palestinian booksellers detained for ‘inciting hatred’

By Maysa Mustafa, Reposted from Middle East Eye

Thousands have taken to social media this week to condemn Israel after its authorities arrested the Palestinian owners of a historic occupied East Jerusalem bookshop for “inciting terrorism” with Palestinian literature, using a children’s coloring book as proposed evidence.

Educational Bookshop is a decades-old bookstore chain respected by locals and internationals alike, with both Arabic and English-language locations. The Muna family have become well-known figures in the local Palestinian community and with diplomats, academics, and writers who have visited occupied East Jerusalem. 

On Sunday, Israeli plain-clothed agents raided two of its three branches. Witnesses told Middle East Eye that the agents entered around 3 pm as if they were regular customers. After five minutes, they suddenly produced a search warrant and ordered customers to leave.

After about 90 minutes, the Israelis left after detaining the shops’ owners, Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad. Both have been taken into custody. Many of their books were taken away with them.

Witnesses said the Munas were told they were accused of “disorderly conduct”. However, MEE has been told that the search warrants specified “terrorist” offenses.

The official X account of the Israeli police posted a picture of a children’s coloring book, titled From the River to the Sea, as supposed evidence of the bookshop containing material “containing incitement and support for terrorism”. 

שוטרי מחוז ירושלים עצרו שני תושבי מזרח העיר שלפי החשד מכרו ספרים המכילים תכני הסתה ותמיכה בטרור בחנויות ספרים, ובהם חוברת צביעה לילדים “מהירדן לים” pic.twitter.com/e23s4GfO6x

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) February 10, 2025

South African author and illustrator of the coloring book, Nathi Ngubane, told MEE that he is concerned his work is being used by the Israeli authorities to censor Palestinians. 

“Our book’s purpose was to educate children in South Africa and beyond about Palestine, apartheid, and Palestine’s universal struggle for freedom. There is no content that incites hate or violence – only lessons in empathy and justice.” 

This is not the first time Ngubane’s book, published by Social Bandit Media, has made headlines for its Palestinian advocacy.

Last year, the children’s book was pulled from a prominent South African bookstore chain after the South African Jewish Board of Deputies called for the “immediate cessation” of its publication because it “indoctrinates children”.

Ngubane says he believes the book – which sold over 13,000 copies in South Africa with all proceeds going to Gaza – is deemed “dangerous” by authorities in Israel and pro-Israel citizens in South Africa mainly because of the slogan that is used for the title.

Many Israelis and supporters of Israel say the phrase “From the River to the Sea” effectively calls for genocide and implies the destruction of Israel.

For Palestinians and pro-Palestine demonstrators, the slogan refers to liberating the territory that exists between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in historic Palestine.

“It’s absurd that a children’s coloring book can lead to detention, while world leaders like Donald Trump openly advocate ethnic cleansing by suggesting Palestinians be displaced from their land – statements that are met with praise from the Israeli government,” Ngubane said.

‘No red lines’

Locals, writers ,and diplomats have come out in droves on social media to condemn the raid of the shops and the arrests of the Muna family, calling for their immediate release. 

Author Matthew Teller recently teamed with Mahmoud to release the book, Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture. He took to his account on X to release a statement on his colleague’s arrest.

“The world has seen the nature of regimes that arrest and imprison booksellers before,” he wrote. “I am proud to call Mahmoud and Ahmad friends. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the work they do in preserving, promoting, and championing Palestinian literary culture in Jerusalem.”

Another author, Brendan Browne, said he was proud that his book “sits on [the] hollowed shelves” of Educational Bookshop.

All solidarity with the Muna family…

I’m proud that my book sits on their hallowed shelves.

Their bookshop is an oasis, a site of incredible learning, of people getting together to critique and think.

No doubt that’s exactly why they were targeted by the Israeli forces. https://t.co/yAu3MYdiiW

— Brendan Ciarán Browne (@brendancbrowne) February 10, 2025

Diplomats from Palestine and abroad have expressed concern about the raids and arrests and the intention behind them. 

“The ongoing campaign to censor knowledge, stifle free speech and information that challenges Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” Palestinian diplomat Husam Zomlot wrote on X. “Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of all just societies. There is no genuine peace without the freedom to read, and no freedom to read without booksellers able to carry out their work in safety.”

Steffen Seibert, the ambassador of Germany to Israel, made a public statement as well, saying that he knows the “peace-loving” and “proud” Muna family. 

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. I am concerned to hear of the raid and their detention in prison.

— Steffen Seibert (@GerAmbTLV) February 10, 2025

Sami Abou Shahadeh, the head of the left-wing Palestinian party in Israel, Balad, said the detention of Mahmoud and Ahmad “shows how afraid illegitimate regimes, such as the Israeli occupation, have of culture and education”.

“Why is it that Israel feels so threatened by books? We may be entering a new stage of oppression, with Netanyahu and his people feeling that they have no red lines,” he posted on X. 

As most expressed shock at the raid and subsequent arrests, many also pointed back to Gaza, where countless historic sites and many universities have been destroyed.

“People are surprised that Palestinian bookstores were raided in East Jerusalem? Did they not see what happened to universities, mosques, and hospitals in Gaza? Or to the people?” one social media user wrote on X. 

Since the arrests, the Education Bookshop shops have been filled with locals showing solidarity with the Muna family. 

The Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem is full with shoppers in solidarity a day after the Israel Police raided the Palestinian store, arrested its owners and confiscated books. They dropped the charges of incitement but still detain them for ‘disturbing the public order’ pic.twitter.com/ZfnkBttfY3

— David Issacharoff (@davidiss) February 10, 2025

Many have called for locals to take action on the ground, including UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese.

“Internationals in Jerusalem: please show up, stand with the Muna family, and protect this vital hub. Don’t leave them alone!” she posted on X. 

“We call for their immediate release,” author Ngubane told MEE.

“Palestinian voices and stories deserve to be heard globally, and efforts to silence them will only be met with solidarity,” he added.

Maysa Mustafa is a journalist and editor for Middle East Eye.

The day Israel came for the booksellers

With a Palestinian coloring book as proof of ‘incitement,’ Israeli police raided East Jerusalem’s world-famous Educational Bookshop and arrested its owners.

By Oren Ziv, Reposted from 972 Magazine

If at any point over the past year and a half, you might have thought the Israeli authorities had already crossed every possible threshold when it comes to curtailing Palestinians’ freedom of expression, you would have been mistaken. Yesterday, Israeli police raided two branches of a world-famous Palestinian bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem, arrested the owner and his nephew, and seized a selection of books — including a children’s coloring book.

During the hearing held today at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, the police representative Sgt. Maj. Ortal Malka said they had identified eight books in the Educational Bookshop that met the criteria for “incitement,” but did not specify which ones. She also refused to address the fact that most of the books are not even written in Arabic and that the store’s clientele is primarily international.

Since an arrest on suspicion of incitement requires prior approval from the State Prosecutor’s Office, the shop’s owner, Mahmoud Muna, and his nephew, Ahmad Muna, who works alongside him, was arrested on suspicion of “disturbing public order” — a common practice in cases related to freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the police claimed in a statement that the store was selling books containing “inciting content and support for terrorism,” and the search warrant that the police used to raid the two branches of the store cited “expressing solidarity with a terrorist organization” as the suspected offense.

When Odeh requested to know the titles of the seized books and the names of their authors, Malka responded: “I cannot answer. We will confront [the Munas] with the books when I receive authorization … It will take time to go through them, which is why we are here requesting a several-day extension of the [Munas’] detention … Most of the books are in Arabic, some are in English, and some in German. I can’t go through them one by one.”

Based on an image of some of the confiscated books that were later returned, the titles included works by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and Banksy, along with books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, student revolutions, and art. Among those seized, according to a statement the police published after the raid, was a children’s coloring book titled “From the River to the Sea” by South African illustrator Nathi Ngubane.

Between the lines

The two branches of the Educational Bookshop are located across the street from each other on Salah Al-Din Street, the main commercial thoroughfare in East Jerusalem, adjacent to the Old City’s Damascus Gate. Established in 1984, the institution is now considered one of the leading booksellers in the Middle East, frequented by journalists, researchers, diplomats, and tourists for its extensive collection of books about the politics and history of Israel-Palestine in English, Arabic, and other languages. They also regularly host public events such as book launches.

In addition to running the stores, Mahmoud Muna is the co-editor of an anthology of stories by writers in Gaza, titled “Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture,” which was compiled against the backdrop of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza to “preserve the heritage of the people of Gaza through literature, music, stories, and memories.” 

While the stores are famous among an international audience, and located within a close proximity to the Magistrate’s Court, they are almost unknown in Israel. The court officials, police officers, and guards were surprised by the amount of interest from the media and diplomats — and as the hearing took place on Monday afternoon, the stores were open and dozens of left-wing Israelis and internationals came to buy books and show solidarity.

Murad Muna, Mahmoud’s brother, and Ahmad’s uncle, described the raid and arrests to +972, as recounted to him by a third brother who witnessed the events. “At 3 p.m., the Israeli police came to the two branches of the bookshop, searching for books with the Palestinian flag,” he said. Although most of the books they confiscated were in English, “they didn’t know how to read English, so they used Google Translate to understand what the books were about.”

Mai, the wife of Mahmoud, told +972 that their 11-year-old daughter was present during the police raid. “Unfortunately, Laila was in the bookshop. She saw everything and was really shocked. But we talked to her and told her that her father is strong and she doesn’t need to worry. She didn’t understand why they were taking the books or what they wanted.” Mai noted that she had feared that such a moment would come. “I always told Mahmoud that I was worried something like this would happen — I saw this coming.”

According to Murad, “This is a political issue. The books we sell are available online — you can buy them anywhere. They deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have many books written by Israeli professors and academics. I don’t think there’s any logic or reason to arrest them.” Welling up, he added, “It’s not easy as a family. We hope that they will be free today.”

During the hearing, Odeh tried to explain to the court that the stores’ customers are mostly foreign — diplomats, journalists, and tourists — to undercut the prosecution’s claim of incitement. The police representative replied, “I don’t know [who the customers are], and it really doesn’t matter. The important thing is that there is an audience, and the court should understand that.”

“From the moment I heard about the arrests,” Odeh went on, “I was reminded of two dramatic raids. In 1258, when the Mongols invaded Baghdad, they entered libraries, confiscated and burned books, and threw some into the river in an attempt to control [public] knowledge — out of revenge, nothing more. The second case was in 1933 in Germany when the Jewish community was persecuted. I’m not making a comparison, [but] writers and authors were arrested out of concern that their art was a critique of the regime’s atrocities.”

In a statement on Monday, the police spokesperson said: “A search was conducted in two bookstores in East Jerusalem that were suspected of selling books containing inciting content. The suspects who sold the books were arrested by police detectives. As part of the investigation, detectives … were exposed to numerous books containing various inciting materials of a Palestinian nationalist nature, including a children’s coloring book titled ‘From the River to the Sea.’ The suspects, in their 30s, were arrested by detectives and taken for questioning.

Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.