Bookselling is not a crime
Photo of Mahmoud Muna by Sally Hayden
The Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem was founded in 1984 by Ahmad Muna, a Jerusalem-born teacher. For more than 40 years the bookshop and the Muna family have been inextricably linked, with members of the family all involved in the hundreds of aspects that make up running what has become a busy cultural institution. On Sunday 9 February 2025, Israeli police raided the bookshop and arrested the owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad. They were detained by Israeli police on the pretext of ‘selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism’, a charge later changed to ‘disturbing public order’. Incitement requires the approval of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. At the time of writing they have been released from custody, but have been placed under house arrest under strict conditions.
As a publisher, I have worked with many Munas. They have all been equally warm, wonderful and infuriating. ‘Publisher X gives us 80% discount! Why don’t you give us that?’ Because we are not publisher X with lavish offices in central London or New York. We work out of a cupboard. Look at their stand at the London Book Fair. Now look at ours. That’s why. ‘Ok, then please can you give us your best discount, Simon!’ At every bookfair, Imad, Iyad or Mahmoud might show up – or not, visa or war not permitting. There would always be a photo together, one of us holding a book up for the camera.
They managed to buy the bookshop at the prestigious American Colony Hotel and expanded to have three bookshops in all, two selling English language books, the other books mainly in Arabic. Jerusalem may be a city of hills, but it is also one of colonies and compounds. The prison my friends were detained in is in the Russian Compound. Not so romantic sounding when you are a prisoner within it.
Ah yes, detained. For the heinous crime of selling books. This is a serious offence, and one that would-be dictators should not take lightly. To import books from other countries, they have to ship those international books to the port of Ashdod, where they undergo the checks and scrutiny of customs before being allowed through. Or impounded. My Palestinian friends were impounded in the Russian Compound.
Mahmoud Muna, youngest of the seven children of the bookshop’s founder, is also a noted writer and editor. A few months ago, he co-edited a book called Daybreak in Gaza (2024), a work that stands as a testament to the culture, heritage and beauty of a place that has been pounded into oblivion over the last 16 months. The book is not a political treatise; its aim was and remains to preserve the memory of what was being erased. Profits from the book are being donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
My parents sent me to a good Jewish primary school, more out of ‘duty’ than zeal. By most accounts, I was pretty good at Jewish learning. But as I got older, the idea of Eretz chemdah tovah u’rechavah describing the ‘land of Israel as desirable, good and spacious’ seemed as suspicious to me as ‘the land of milk and honey’. There was no sudden awakening; I think the process of disengagement was a tad more subtle. It was hard, I admit, and still is, to hear Israel accused of things that I found and still find barely imaginable.
Over the same period that the Educational Bookshop has been in existence, if not longer, I think that many people have come to realise that Israel is not ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’.
There are many terrible and despotic regimes around the world; some of them threaten Israel. All that is true. What happened on the 7th of October 2023 was a horrific atrocity. It does not justify the extent of the horrific atrocities being committed in the name of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have protested at the actions of their government, but the toll of death and destruction has not abated.
Which brings me back to Mahmoud and his nephew, young Ahmad Muna. The Educational Bookshop is a beacon of light and culture in dark times. The Munas are ‘fortunate’ in that a large part of their clientele is comprised of diplomats, policy makers, journalists and academics who can make a noise. That noise can make a difference. Mahmoud and Ahmad may have been placed under house arrest at the time of writing this, but the authorities will make sure they have been warned. The future for the Educational Bookshop is precarious.
In a 2023 interview Mahmoud said: ‘We’re the bridge between the people who write books and those who read them, and we facilitate the space where this conversation happens’. But that bridge is now being threatened and, if the Israeli administration has its way, that space will become narrower or even disappear. ‘We survived two intifadas, one peace process, and one pandemic’. Now they are facing a new danger.
This could be a bookshop anywhere in the world, whether in a conflicted space or in a quiet town. It could be your local bookshop, if you are lucky enough to have one. When it’s gone, a community and part of us all dies with it. Shout and write and protest to save it, and thereby save a part of ourselves.
Saqi Books have organised a fundraiser for the Educational Bookshop:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBAdsSI4mE/
A Bookshop Solidarity Day is being organised for Saturday 22 February, details to be confirmed.
Quotes by Mahmoud Muna reproduced from ‘Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop at 39 Years: ‘The Palestinian Point of View’ by Olivia Snaije (Publishing Perspectives, July 2023).