A PALESTINIAN bookseller who was in Edinburgh just months ago for a launch with Lighthouse Bookshop, has had his shop raided by Israeli forces in Jerusalem.
Mahmoud Muna was arrested and detained alongside his nephew on Sunday on suspicion of “inciting and supporting terrorism”, a charge which was later changed to “disturbing the public order”.
The shop, called The Educational Bookshop, specialises in Arabic and English language books on the history of Jerusalem and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Lighthouse has now called for support in helping the bookshop get back on its feet as the case continues.
Mahmoud, 41, was in Edinburgh in October last year for the launch of his book, Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture, which he co-edited with Matthew Teller.
The book is a collection of stories from the people of Gaza, including artists, acrobats, doctors, students, and shopkeepers.
His book was among those ransacked at the shop on Sunday, when Israeli police used Google translate to examine and take books such as Noam Chomsky’s Gaza in Crisis and a children’s colouring book titled From the River to the Sea.
Mahmoud’s brother Murad stated: “They used Google Translate on the books, and anything they didn’t like, they took,”
“They even found a Haaretz newspaper with a picture of the hostages and asked what it was, saying it was incitement. They took every book with a Palestinian flag on it”.
After a hearing yesterday morning, Mahmoud and his 33-year-old nephew were released today and have been placed on house arrest.
The Educational Bookshop, which was founded by Mahmoud’s father, has three locations in East Jerusalem and remains popular amongst researchers, tourists, and journalists.
A spokesperson for Lighthouse stated today: “We were horrified to hear of the targeting of the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem by Israeli police, and the arrest of owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed on spurious charges.
“Mahmoud is a long-standing friend of the Lighthouse bookshop and visited Edinburgh last October with Matthew Teller co-editor of the anthology Daybreak in Gaza.
“Their book launch, hosted by Dr Malaka Shwaikh – an Edinburgh local resident from Gaza – drew a crowd far too big for our own bookshop space so we celebrated the book at Augustine United Church around the corner, with over 100 guests attending to hear the two share human stories, memories and art of Gaza.
“We began talks that night with Mahmoud to create a ‘sister bookshop’ link between Lighthouse and the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, to offer mutual support and celebrate shared values.
“Mahmoud’s bookshop is a family run literary institution that has been a bastion of ideas and connection for decades, to see it ransacked by police and its booksellers locked up and persecuted under spurious charges is truly chilling.
“Bookselling is not a crime, and I echo the MD of the UK Bookselling Association in saying all bookshops should be respectfully allowed to function as peaceful spaces of intellectual refuge and freedom of expression, and the booksellers who facilitate them be protected physically, mentally and operationally from all forms of aggression and suppression.
“This is as true in Jerusalem as it is in Edinburgh – we saw an outpouring of solidarity when our own bookshop was a target of harassment a few years ago and it is heartening to see the book industry and readers more widely step up in solidarity with Mahmoud and Ahmed’
