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Photo:
The Educational Bookshop, Jerusalem Published by IMEMC News

American Colony shops.

Scenes. Posted by Tal Vardi, David Isaacharoff and Noga Tarnopolsky on Twitter (X)
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by IMEMC News
Feb 11, 2025

Translated From WAFA, Article by Bilal Gheith Kiswani: Over 38 years ago, the Scientific Library was established on Salahuddin Street in occupied Jerusalem, in the West bank. Over the years, it became one of the most significant libraries in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, attracting diplomats, journalists, researchers, and students.

In 2011, the Scientific Library won the award for Best Library in Palestine and was recognized as the third-best library in the Middle East by “Lonely Planet” and the BBC in London.

This prestigious status and the vast collection of books and references in multiple languages about Palestine and Jerusalem did not sit well with the Israeli occupation, which targets everything Arab and Palestinian in the holy city.

The occupation forces shuttered the library and abducted its owners, Mahmoud and Ahmad Mona, under the pretext of selling books that contain “incitement.”

Prior to closing the Scientific Library, the occupation authorities had shut down two other libraries in the Old City of Jerusalem earlier this month, revealing a colonial scheme targeting thought, culture, and literature in Jerusalem.

Previously, the Israeli police invaded two libraries on Khan Al-Zeit Street within the Old City’s walls, abducted Hisham Al-Ikrimawi, the owner of the Jerusalem Library, for several days, and shut down his library for a month under the pretext of selling “inciting” books. They also imposed heavy fines on another library owner in the Old City under flimsy excuses.

Nasser Odah, the lawyer representing the owners of the Scientific Library in Jerusalem, stated in a press release following the trial of the Mona brothers that the occupation police stormed the library on Salahuddin Street Sunday afternoon after obtaining a search warrant from the so-called “Magistrate’s Court,” alleging that it contained books “inciting terrorism and violence.” The police abducted the Mona brothers and requested the court extend their detention for eight days.

Odah noted that this was unprecedented, as, two weeks ago, the occupation authorities issued an administrative closure order for a library in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Several European diplomats attended the “trial session” of the Mona brothers. The French consulate stated in a post that “attacks on a prestigious library and cultural institution in Jerusalem constitute a blatant violation of freedom of expression and fundamental democratic values,” calling for the immediate release of the brothers.

Palestinian writer Dima As-Samman said that the closure of libraries falls within the Israeli plans to stifle knowledge, silence voices, and erase anything related to Palestinian national culture.

She noted that the occupation seized any book with any form of Palestinian nationalism in the Scientific Library.

She added that even “Israeli newspapers, which have some relatively objective articles like Haaretz, are targeted. This is not surprising from a racist state that follows a policy of ignorance and targets everything related to Palestinian nationalism in Jerusalem.”

As-Samman explained that Palestinian curricula have been fought under the pretext of “incitement” for years, and now libraries are accused of incitement.

This is part of the occupation’s plans to prevent anything Palestinian, within a studied and consistent scheme, aiming to eventually empty Jerusalem of everything Palestinian.

Culture and education are twins related to mind, awareness, belonging, and thinking, which Israel tries to control and manipulate to pass its forged narrative that serves its colonial agenda.

Similarly, Palestinian writer Jamil As-Salhout stated that the entity claiming to be “the only democracy in the Middle East” fears books and culture, questioning, “Why is there such fear of culture? This is oppression of freedom, and freedom of opinion and expression.”

He added that the current Israeli government opposes everything humane, including culture and human life, within the mad policy of this government. “The occupation knows that while it may achieve military victory, it cannot win culturally.”

He affirmed that Arab culture in Jerusalem is not threatened by the occupation, stating, “We are heirs to an ancient civilization stretching through history, and military force cannot succeed in striking Palestinian culture in Jerusalem.”

Palestinian author and intellectual Rasim Obeidat mentioned that the aggression did not stop at attacking the Palestinian curriculum; it goes beyond that to target Palestinian culture, narrative, and identity in Jerusalem.

He clarified that the current war on libraries and their closure comes under the pretexts of selling books related to Palestinian history and identity, claiming they are inciting. This war is escalating against all libraries.

Obeidat added that the Scientific Library sells many international scientific books. The seizure of several books, even those with the Palestinian flag on their cover, falls within the comprehensive war targeting the Palestinian people. Cultural institutions are also targeted, such as repeated assaults on the Yabous Cultural Centre under the pretext of incitement.

He pointed out that the occupation fights any Palestinian symbol in Jerusalem. Commercial shops are targeted under the pretext of having Palestinian symbols, part of a futile attempt to alter Palestinian awareness and target Palestinian culture, narrative, and existence in Jerusalem.

“This falls under the attempts to reshape Palestinian awareness and target Palestinian culture, narrative, existence, and history. It is a desperate attempt by the occupation to erase the Palestinian narrative and claim that the indigenous Jerusalemites are outsiders. This will not happen.” Obeidat added.

Obaidat confirmed that our people will not comply with the orders of the occupation, which seeks to create a state of fear about reading and carrying the books of the late poet Mahmoud Darwish and others who spoke about the history of Palestine and the Zionist war on our people. “We must form committees to preserve Palestinian identity and culture through social media platforms and in the general public reality in Jerusalem,” he concluded.
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via Twitter (X)


Tal Vardi
@TalVardi1
Feb 10, 2025
מחמוד מונא הוא כל מה שישראלים יכלו לבקש. הוא עונה לכל ההגדרות של הרוב היהודי למיהו "ערבי טוב". הוא מכיר בזכות של מדינת ישראל להתקיים, הוא פעיל שלום, הוא בעד חיים משותפים, הוא מתנגד לאלימות והוא גינה את מעשי חמאס בטבח ה7/10. אז למה בכל זאת פשטו על חנות הספרים שלו ועצרו אותו?

Translated from Hebrew by google

Mahmoud Muna is everything Israelis could ask for. He meets all the Jewish majority's definitions of what a "good Arab" is. He recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist, he is a peace activist, he is in favor of living together, he opposes violence and he condemned Hamas' actions in the 7/10 massacre. So why did they raid his bookstore and arrest him anyway?


Tal Vardi
@TalVardi1
כי מחמוד מונא הוא גם פלסטיני. אפילו גאה. הוא לא מסתיר או מתבייש בזהות שלו ומאמין שאין סתירה בינה לבין שאר האמונות שלו. ולשלטון הישראלי לא בא טוב בעין שיש אנשים כאלה, "פלסטינים" שאפשר לדבר ולחלום איתם על עתיד משותף של שלום וביטחון לכל בני האדם בין הנהר לים, יהודים ופלסטינים

Translated from Hebrew by Google
Because Mahmoud Muna is also Palestinian. Even proud. He does not hide or is ashamed of his identity and believes that there is no contradiction between it and his other beliefs. And the Israeli government does not like the fact that there are such people, "Palestinians" with whom one can talk and dream about a shared future of peace and security for all people between the river and the sea, Jews and Palestinians. >>


Tal Vardi
@TalVardi1
ולכן הם יעצרו אותו, יתעללו בו ויתישו אותו למרות שלא עשה דבר. כי הוא פלסטיני, ולמי אכפת?

סליחה מחמוד. סליחה שלא עצרנו את הפאשיסטים מלהגיע אלייך. סליחה שאתה צריך להיענש על החברה המקולקלת שלנו. סליחה שיש יותר שגרירים זרים מח"כים יהודים במפגן התמיכה בך. סולידריות עם מחמוד מונא

Translated from Hebrew by Google
And so they will arrest him, abuse him, and exhaust him even though he has done nothing. Because he is Palestinian, and who cares?

Sorry Mahmoud. Sorry we didn't stop the fascists from reaching you. Sorry you have to be punished for our broken society. Sorry there are more foreign ambassadors than Jewish MKs at the demonstration of support for you. Solidarity with Mahmoud Muna


David Issacharoff
@davidiss
Feb 10, 2025
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’


Noga Tarnopolsky
@NTarnopolsky
Feb 11
Booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna are now both free from @IsraelPolice custody. They were kept in jail for a second night for no reason: neither was interrogated again after the police asked for an 8 day extension of their detention. No charges.
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Reading Under Threat: Why Palestinian Bookstores Are Such a Rare Breed

The Israeli raid of the Educational Bookshops was only the latest in a series of hardships Palestinian store owners have been facing: from the inability to import books from Arab countries, to censorship and a lack of demand. Yet some are trying to change the narrative

by Sheren Falah Saab for Haaretz
Feb 23, 2025

It was supposed to be another ordinary Sunday afternoon at the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem. But then undercover policemen arrived and presented a court order enabling them to search for materials containing incitement to violence.

Store owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad were stunned: For two hours, the officers strolled around the bookcases, leafed through books, scanned and translated book covers on their phones, and looked for suspicious content. After collecting somewhere between 100 to 150 books, they stuffed them into large trash bags.

But the operation wasn't over yet. When the officers finished loading the bags into their van, they arrested the two family members and drove them to the Kishle police station in the Old City.

A complex role
Since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and through the years of military rule, Palestinians who wanted to become booksellers faced many difficulties. Almog Behar, a writer, poet and researcher of Arabic-Jewish literature, recounts conversations he had with poet Sasson Somekh, who had a close relationship with Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali.

"They lived during the period of military rule and were looking for books in Arabic. Most of the bookshops were closed in 1948, and after the end of the War of Independence [in 1949], very few new books in Arabic came from the Arab world. From the state's perspective, books from Arab countries were considered 'contraband.'"

'Most of the bookshops were closed in 1948, and after the end of the War of Independence [in 1949], very few new books in Arabic came from the Arab world.'

The fact that some Arab countries are considered enemies of Israel only complicates matters further for bookstores. The import of books from Jordan and Egypt was allowed only after the receipt of import licenses, based on a legal opinion stating that books published in Lebanon or Syria but purchased in Jordan or Egypt did not constitute illegal trade with enemy states.

Adam Raz, a researcher at the Akevot Institute, agrees that it has been difficult to import books from Arab states over the years. However, the distribution of books written in Arabic within Israel also encountered problems. In a 2021 Haaretz article, Raz wrote: "From the establishment of the state until 1970, there was censorship of books in Arabic, and of Arabic literature and poetry written by Palestinians who are Israeli citizens." He adds that in the late '70s and early '80s, the censorship no longer focused on that.

Behar says that due to the problems with the importing, distribution and sale of Arab books, often "people's private libraries in their homes filled the gap, because there were no publicly funded libraries. The establishment wasn't interested in such things. Much of the exchange of books took place among individuals."

In the late '60s, poet Ali opened a store selling souvenirs and books in Nazareth. Over time, it became a space where intellectuals gathered and a meeting point for poets and artists such as Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim and Emile Habibi. News of the store spread by word of mouth in the Arab community; students started visiting in the hope of meeting the great poets, and there were evenings of poetry and prose readings.

In Haifa, it's a younger, more vibrant middle class, with artists from various fields – not just writers and poets.

Almog Behar
Behar stresses that due to the specific history of the Palestinians in Israel, the dividing line between a library and a bookstore remains blurred in Arab society. "In Arabic, the word maktaba means both library and bookstore. It reflects a mixed role of educating, creating an intellectual space and selling books."

In 1970, two new bookstores emerged that are considered the oldest in Arab society in Israel, and both are still operating today: Sifriyat Al-Shaya, a bookshop and publisher in Haifa; and Sifriyat Samir Al-Safdi in Nazareth. The 1979 peace treaty with Egypt enabled bookstore owners to import Arabic books from Cairo, a step that improved their ability to offer Arab readers a wide variety of content that had hitherto been unavailable.

Sabri Jiryis, a longtime customer of the Education Bookshop and former adviser on Israeli affairs to the late Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, explains that this turning point also occurred because of an increased demand for books within the Arab community. "The upsurge of attendance at academic institutions among Arabs expanded the circle of readers," he says. "Education in Arab schools also expanded, and there was greater emphasis on reading books. The field of original literature for children in Arabic developed, and later for teenagers as well."

Despite the changes in Arab society and the peace agreements with Egypt and, later, Jordan, the sales and reading of books dropped off. A 2017 survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics on reading habits in the Arab community revealed that about half of the Arab population, 49 percent, didn't read books at all – compared to 24 percent among Israel's Jewish population. No similar surveys have been conducted since.

Yet in spite of the absence of newer data examining reading habits among Arabs in Israel, the reality speaks for itself: bookstores for readers of Arabic are a rare sight in Israel.

"If we go back 10 years, the number of stores specializing in books was small and could be counted on one hand. Today, there's an increased demand for books – but mainly in the area of children's literature," says Manal Sabaaneh, a children's author, translator and publisher.

Sabaaneh, the owner of a bookstore in the Arab town of Kafr Qara, adds that "the idea of a bookstore is almost nonexistent in Arab society. There are very few stores that specialize in selling books only."

Intercultural spaces
Despite the bleak reality, some people have decided to take up the challenge of establishing a bookstore aimed at the Arab population. One of them is Michel El Rahab, who started Jaffa's Yafa Café in 2003, combining book sales, various cultural activities and a café. Rahab had seen a similar place during a visit to Bulgaria, and decided to follow suit when he returned to Israel.

"For me, it's a cultural center in every sense and not just a bookstore," he says. "We screen a film every week, hold lectures, have book launches and also offer Arabic language workshops. We're creating a cultural space in Jaffa. Our audience is diverse, both Arabs and Jews, and people from all parts of society come to us."

He says the agenda behind his store is "to make Arab culture visible in all languages and to expose readers to this culture. There aren't any Arabic bookstores in the center of the country aside from us, and that's why this place is important. If Yafa Café didn't exist, there would be no cultural space for Arabs in Jaffa, or in the entire central region. What do we have other than theater? There's no center to disseminate Arabic culture. Culture is our existence: If there's no culture, there's no meaning to our existence."

Behar also highlights the importance of Yafa Café as a shared space for Arabs and Jews. He mentions the launch of the bilingual anthology "Shtayim/Athnaan" ("two" in English), which includes works in both Arabic and Hebrew, which took place there about a decade ago. "That was the appropriate place in which to read in the two languages, and the audience for the most part knew both languages. It's a space that creates a community around it."

In 2016, a bookstore called Al-Matajer, located on the second floor of the Fattoush restaurant in Haifa, was established. As opposed to Yafa Café, this store also offers albums from local Arab artists and handmade objets d'art. It too serves as a cultural space and meeting point for Jewish and Arab intellectuals.

"One could say there are imagined communities surrounding these stores, and they differ somewhat from each other," says Behar. "In Haifa, it's a younger, more vibrant middle class, with artists from various fields – not just writers and poets. In Jerusalem, it works on a different axis, with the emphasis on realizing the store's potential in the surrounding community. For activists from abroad who come to the West Bank, the Educational Bookshop is a place of community, consciousness and encounter."

'If Yafa Café didn't exist, there would be no cultural space for Arabs in Jaffa, or in the entire central region.'

At Sabaaneh's Atafeal bookstore in Kafr Qara, things are different but no less interesting. Sabaaneh says she initially opened the space as a play area, with books sold on the side. Because of the pandemic, though, she decided to focus solely on the selling and publishing of books. Today, her store is the only one in the region that offers nothing but books. "It's part of a desire to change the reality – and for me, the mere existence of the store is a statement in itself: that's it's possible, and it can last for years."

Various events take place at Atafeal: for example, a story hour that includes a discussion around a book, or creative writing workshops for teenagers and adults. "We don't just sell books; we advise parents on what to choose and what not to choose for their children," she says.

Sabaaneh has also been involved in collaborations with Jewish writers. In 2018, she translated David Grossman's book "Buba Tuti" ("Tuti the Doll") with the support of the Mifal Hapayis lottery fund, and held a bilingual in-store event with the author. "Parents and children, Jews and Arabs, attended and we read the story in both languages. It was fascinating and very meaningful."

In 2020, she held a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew children's reading session for Mirik Snir's story "Galgalim" ("Wheels"), again with the author present. "Events like these are important because they build bridges between the two cultures. I'd love to see more such encounters," she says.

The recent incident at the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem classifies books as something that represents a danger to the public. In reality, though, bookstores in Arab society are a lifeline for lovers of culture, poetry and literature.

"The role of a bookstore in Arab society isn't only to sell books," Sabaaneh sums up, "but to create an alternative space for the community that encourages reading, keeps youngsters away from risks, and empowers parents who want to develop reading habits in their children."