Human rights advocates and diplomats have condemned the raids and the arrests of the retailers’ house owners.
The main Israeli human rights group B’Tselem was amongst these voicing outrage Monday in response to an Israeli police raid on a pair of famend Palestinian-owned bookstores in illegally occupied East Jerusalem over the weekend.
Haaretz reported that after confiscating books they claimed had been “inciteful,” Israeli officers on Sunday arrested the house owners of the 2 branches of the Instructional Bookshop.
“The Instructional Bookshop chain is probably the most well-known bookstore chain in East Jerusalem, with three places on Salah al-Din Avenue and within the American Colony Resort complicated,” the Israeli newspaper famous. “The shops specialise in Arabic and English books on the Israeli-Palestinian battle and the historical past of Jerusalem, and they’re well-known to researchers, diplomats, journalists, and vacationers.”
Mourad Muna, the brother of Mahmoud Muna — one of many store house owners who was detained — stated Israeli police “used Google Translate” to find out which books to grab. Among the many books confiscated was one titled, “From the River to the Sea: A Colouring Ebook.”
“They even discovered a Haaretz newspaper with an image of the hostages and requested what it was, saying it was incitement,” stated Mourad Muna. “They took each e-book with a Palestinian flag on it.”
The house owners had been arrested on suspicion of “violating public order.”
B’Tselem said in response to the raid that “Israel is continuous its struggle on the whole Palestinian folks.”
“The try and crush the Palestinian folks contains harassment and arrest of intellectuals,” the group stated. “Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, well-known figures within the Jerusalem cultural scene, run the Instructional Bookshop — a gathering level for cultural and political dialogue. Israel should instantly launch them from detention and cease persecuting Palestinian intellectuals.”
Within the wake of the raid and arrests of the Instructional Bookshop house owners, Haaretz reported that “protesters gathered outdoors the Jerusalem Justice of the Peace’s Court docket” in a present of opposition forward of a listening to on the detention of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna.
“Diplomatic representatives from the Netherlands, the U.Okay., Belgium, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Eire, Sweden, and the E.U. all visited the courthouse in Jerusalem the place the listening to is because of happen, to indicate assist for the bookshop house owners,” the Israeli newspaper added.
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