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Date: March 02 2025

Author: Ehab Bessaiso

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. Read More