A PALESTINIAN bookshop owner whose shop was ransacked by Israeli forces in Jerusalem earlier this month, has spoken out about the experience.
Mahmoud Muna said that Israeli officers took over 250 books when they ransacked his shop and placed him and his nephew in conditions that were “beyond difficult”.
Mahmoud was in Edinburgh just last year for a book launch with radical bookstore Lighthouse Bookshop, who spoke out about his arrest and are now supporting an emergency appeal for the shop.
Over £30,000 has been raised to support the Educational Bookshop, which is an independent chain of three stores in East Jerusalem.
Speaking to Peter Beinart from The Beinart Notebook, Mahmoud told of the day when officers entered his store and began to look through his shelves, taking anything that could be considered to incite violence or terrorism.
He said: “They were scanning the books and trying to find key words like occupation, words like apartheid, words like, I don’t know, Gaza. I mean, they can recognize the words like Hamas.”
The bookshop has been serving the community for over 40 years, selling both English and Arabic books on the history of Jerusalem, Middle Eastern studies, and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Mahmoud said: “And we see ourselves as a bookshop as we would like to stop at that role of creating a civilized space in which everyone can feel they can openly speak about their ideas in a way that can be discussed, it can be argued, it can be debated as well.”
Books that were taken include Rachel Shabi’s, Off White: The Truth about Antisemitism and George Orwell’s 1984, which Mahmoud describes as the point when “the irony reached its epic moment”.
Out of around 260 books taken, only eight were kept, including Walid Khalidi’s All That Remains, a book of paintings about Jerusalem by Palestinian artists, and a children’s colouring book titled From the River to the Sea.
Mahmoud and his nephew Ahmed were arrested on suspicion of “inciting and supporting terrorism”, which supposedly could not be proven and was therefore changed to “disturbing the public order”.
After two days in detention, the pair were released on house arrest for five days and could not return to the bookshop for 20 days.
A fundraiser has been started by independent press Saqi Books, who published Mahmoud’s book, Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture.
It has raised over £30,000 and is aiming to replace the books that were seized, fix material damages to the bookshop, and pay interim booksellers until Mahmoud and Ahmad can return to work.
Mahmoud’s book, which was co-edited with Matthew Teller, was launched in Edinburgh’s Lighthouse bookshop in October last year.
The store posted on social media last week, saying: “Though their booksellers are now home, their trials & those of The Educational Bookshop are ongoing: We need you.
“Please join us in saying loud & clear the world over book selling is not a crime and, crucially, help us to raise funds to support the Educational Bookshop: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jerusalems-educational-bookshop-emergency-appeal”
