On Feb. 9, around 4 p.m., Israeli police raided the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, tampered with its valuable contents of books and magazines, confiscated many of the publications from the shelves, and detained the Bookshop’s owners, Mahmoud Muna, and his nephew, Ahmed. They claimed that the bookstore sold “inflammatory material,” referring to books discussing Palestinian history, art, literature, politics, and sociology.
Mahmoud and Ahmed were released two days later but were subjected to house arrest for five days. Israeli authorities also ordered the Educational Bookshop shut.
I have known Mahmoud for many years. The owner of the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem had succeeded in forming a vital bridge of knowledge and thoughts between the culturally besieged Palestine and various international publishing houses. Through his insistence on offering different titles, especially those published in the English language, Mahmoud has managed to provide the readers in occupied Palestine with the desired publications that are normally difficult to find due to various restrictions imposed by Israeli occupation authorities.
The Educational Bookshop had become one of the main pillars in Jerusalem, forming an essential source for cultural supplies and a distinctive base for cultural activities, despite continued obstacles against Palestinian writers, cultural activities, and books imposed by the Israeli authorities.
Although Jerusalem is only a few kilometers away from Ramallah and Bethlehem, where I live and work at Dar Al-Kalima University, I have never had the chance to visit Mahmoud in his eminent bookshop in Jerusalem. The desired journey is difficult, marked by countless restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the occupied territories. These abnormal restrictions and measures, which have only increased over the last thirty years, have created a visibly tense and militarized environment, which continues to isolate Jerusalem from other Palestinian cities, or in other words, to isolate other occupied Palestinian cities from Jerusalem. It was obvious that these oppressive measures were designed to impact all forms of Palestinian life, including social, health, education and economic systems. These systems have been weakened by the systematic and forced isolation imposed by Israel, which aims to separate the Palestinians into various cantons. These cantons are only connected by an Israeli apartheid system, preventing any form of ordinary, natural, and daily interactions.
The result is becoming increasingly evident in the establishment of a sophisticated military surveillance system. This includes the construction of the oppressive apartheid and separation wall, the installation of hundreds of checkpoints and barriers, and the constant struggle of Palestinians to obtain various types of pass permits to maintain their daily routines.
As a Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank, the thought of accessing Jerusalem or moving freely between Palestinian cities is akin to living a daily nightmare. Although I live less than thirty minutes away by car from Jerusalem, reaching the city is not straightforward due to occupation checkpoints. It can take hours, and that is only if permits are granted for a fixed time and date. The process of obtaining these kinds of permits is far from straightforward. The Israeli system humiliates Palestinians by denying access to Jerusalem and categorizing them into groups based on age, gender, and profession. This is a clear example of colonial control over the land and the people.
Thus, my regular habit of browsing bookshelves at the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, searching for newly published titles or specific publications for academic research, has never been fulfilled.
Perhaps, my frustration with such deliberate segregation has driven me to find alternative ways to stay connected to Jerusalem and the Bookshop. For many years, the internet and social media platforms have provided this connection. The Educational Bookshop and its cultural activities have become a virtual and parallel reality for me through published images and news on social media. Additionally, my frequent requests for books in English usually arrive in Ramallah or Bethlehem despite various forms of prevention, delay, and Israeli procrastination.
However, Mahmoud did not surrender to this unfair reality and its systematic persecutions. Books would frequently arrive from publishing houses around the world to Jerusalem, and from there, Mahmoud would carry them for us (sometimes in person) in our besieged ghettos in the occupied West Bank.
In this context, my meetings with Mahmoud became extended cultural gatherings, where we enjoyed interesting discussions over a cup of coffee. We exchanged ideas on identity, culture, Palestine, the role of the intellectual, and the ability to face challenges by insisting on maintaining the Palestinian struggle for cultural resistance that is not restricted by military checkpoints.
Perhaps Mahmoud’s journeys could be described as acts of defiance. By bringing international books to the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem, the process itself carries additional meaning for us Palestinians. This meaning is felt through the insistence on bringing the value of cultural engagement into a life constantly besieged and threatened by the various crimes of colonialism.
During the genocidal war on Gaza, Mahmoud along with a group of distinguished journalists and intellectuals, including Matthew Teller, Juliet Touma, and Jayyab Abusafia, began working on publishing a book about Gaza in English.
The idea of producing a book about Gaza, during the horrific period of the genocidal war, may have seemed rather ‘adventurous’ given the tense and difficult circumstances. However, Mahmoud, Matthew, Juliet, and Jayyab succeeded in defying the unbearable stagnation of time. They reached out and communicated with numerous Palestinians including Palestinians in Gaza from different professional backgrounds, as well as individuals from other nationalities, to document their testimonies about Gaza before and during the genocide. This distinctive and bold initiative was uniquely expressive in connecting people through the power of memory and the shared values of human rights. It conveyed a distinguished voice of Gaza to the world, contributing to global efforts to confront the immoral stereotypical images of the besieged territory, which Israeli occupation authorities have always associated it with chaos, devastation, and extremism.
The result was the production of a significant publication in late 2024, in English, by Saqi Publishing House in London, entitled “Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture.” The editors and the publisher agreed that the proceeds from its sales would support medical aid efforts for Palestinians.
I have received a copy of the book (as usual) from the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, after it traveled through the barriers and the apartheid wall. I found myself diving into its 336 pages of vision, memories, and stories, brilliantly selected by the editors to reveal the right to life and freedom before the agony of the extermination machine.
Reading the book during this time of systematic and engineered massacres felt like connecting me further with my early memories of childhood in Gaza and the endless dreams of a future not confiscated by the noise of tanks, drones, and fighting jets.
The circumstances surrounding the publication of a book with such content, during this complexity and pain, have made the project a pioneer within a courageous cultural movement that refuses to surrender to silence and the immoral machine of cultural erasure.
In this perspective, the book has become an inspiring experience due to its timing and significant content. Mahmoud, Mathew, Juliette, and Jayyab have created a new model for expressing the role of culture in society still enduring the calamity of colonialism.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Occupation Forces and police routinely inspect, monitor, and control the lives of Palestinians, and also shoot at or detain them for any peculiar reason.
That was the case when Israeli police raided the Educational Bookshop on the afternoon of Feb. 9, and arrested Mahmoud with his nephew Ahmed. The incident was intended to continue terrifying the Palestinians in their own place and city by spreading waves of fear, panic, and frustration among them and across generations. It is part of a systematic cultural siege dictating what Palestinians must read or know about their own culture or history.
It was painful to learn that various books were confiscated on that day from the Educational Bookshop. Among them was the iconic book by the prominent Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, and published by the Institute for Palestine Studies, “All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948.” This book has always been an essential reference for what happened during the Nakba. Through its field research, archival, and historic documents, it pinpointed the precise locations of more than 400 destroyed villages, providing an outstanding narrative of a decolonial approach to the ongoing atrocity, which continues to eradicate Palestinian existence in what can be described as ‘The Palestinian Genocide.’
Equally painful was the confiscation of a book by the distinguished historian, Ilan Pappé, who declared on the same day of the horrific incident on his Facebook page that among the confiscated materials was a book he coauthored with Noam Chomsky in 2011, titled, “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel war against Palestinians.” This book, composed of interviews and articles by the two well-reputed scholars, provides additional analysis of the continuous Israeli aggression on Gaza, its implications and reflections on the future. One of the expressive terms used in the book to underline the suffering of the Palestinians through systemic ethnic cleansing and the ongoing massive human rights violations is the ‘Ghettoization of Palestine. This term still applies to the current situation, outlining Israeli oppressive measures and policies against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian land.
Observing these procedures, including frequent Israeli wars on cultural events, books, academia, and platforms for freedom of expression, it becomes evident that the true meaning of the Israeli allegation of selling “inflammatory material,” at the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem is simply another form of Orwellian ‘Doublespeak,’ derived from George Orwell’s novel, “1984.”
In this case, it represents a horrific political statement implying Israel’s constant desire to silence Palestinian and other international voices. Thus, raiding a Palestinian bookshop in Jerusalem and arresting its owners can be viewed within the context of using disguised words to provide a palatable meaning for the aggression of colonial oppression.
Consequently, the incident itself is another case of systematic procedures aimed at annihilating the rightful practice of Palestinians to express their identity, ideas, and thoughts, which support their rights to justice and freedom.
