A call for the immediate release if Mahmoud Muna

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Upprop för bokhandlaren i Jerusalem, Mahmoud Muna.

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Well-established writers and poets, cultural actors, cultural institutions and book sellers in Israel strongly condemn the raid on the East Jerusalem chain of bookstores The Educational Bookshop (EB)

And call for the immediate release of its owner from detention!

Among the signatories: Dana Olmert, Lea Aini, Yaniv Iczkovits, Sharon As, Prof. Nitza Ben-Dov, Dror Burstein, Gili Bar-Hillel, Arik Bernstein, Ornit Cohen-Barak, Assaf Gavron, Prof. Michael Gluzman, Ediva Geffen, Shira Geffen, David Grossman, Ruti Direktor, Barak Heymann, Prof. David Harel, Itzik Weingarten, Tamar Verete-Zehavi, Esti Zakheim, Hila Havkin, Esti G. Haim, Yonatan Yavin, Prof. Fania Oz-Salzberger, Prof. Zvi Triger, Prof. Yair Lev, Achinoam Nini, Shaanan Streett, Mira Awad, Tamar Eilam, Arna Akkad, Prof. Menachem Fisch, Yossi Zabari, Sarah Tzafroni, Arna Kazin, Michel Kichka, Yehudit Katzir, Dror Keren, Etgar Keret, Dalia Rabin, Prof. Frances Raday, Prof. Tova Rosen, Amit Rotbard, Asaf Schurr, Yaara Shachori, Tsur Shezaf, Ilan Sheinfeld, Sarah Shela, Julie Shlez, Eyal Sher. 

Renowned writers and poets, cultural actors, cultural institutions and booksellers in Israel were deeply shocked to discover this morning from reports in the media that the police last night raided the "Educational Bookshop" (EB) chain of bookstores in East Jerusalem, arrested its owner and confiscated books from it.

"From our history we know that where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people", wrote the poet Heinrich Heine, and in a place where books are confiscated and their sellers are arrested - the road to infringement of the rights of expression and freedom, the right to property and the right to life is very short."

The educational bookshop chain, and its flagship store, are a cultural center for Palestinian and Israeli meetings, and we fear that the raid on the store, the confiscation of books from it, and the imprisonment of its owner under the pretext of 'violating public order' is a regime provocation, designed to erase the Palestinian cultural narrative and harass those involved in it."

We call people of letters and intellectuals, writers and poets, book sellers, to come to Jerusalem, stand by the educational bookshop and express their support for free culture, dialogue between nations, and education for tolerance and humanism as the only tool to resolve the conflict."

    The educational bookstore was founded in 1984 by the father of the family, Ahmed Muna. Today, it is managed by the Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed Muna. The Muna family manages two other stores in East Jerusalem. Over the years, the store became home to the international literary magazine "Granta" in the Arabic language, and Mahmoud Muna serves as co-editor-in-chief of the Arabic edition of Granta since 2019.    

The ED is a complex for the preservation of Palestinian historical heritage and culture, focusing on the civilization, history and literature of the Middle East. The store holds cultural events and classes to promote and preserve Palestinian culture. In addition, in the store you can find a wide variety of books on the Israeli-conflict in many languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as translated literature by Hebrew authors. As an independent bookstore it promotes values of liberalism and humanism.

    The store also includes a book cafe where some of the events take place. It won the Best Bookstore Award for 2011, and was ranked by the Lonely Planet travel guide and the BBC in London as Third Best Bookstore in the Middle East.

     Mahmoud Muna preserves a long-standing legacy of faith in humanism and in human beings, in the power of a bookstore to create a community and in the power of books to work miracles. The violent act of the Israeli police appears to be an attempt by the law enforcement authorities to trample any chance of a meeting and dialogue. Mahmoud Muna, The manager of this important and beautiful store, has been representing for years a sharp and clear voice, however critical, for coexistence.

  The store's book collection is mostly research-based, published by highly respected institutions and publishers from world-wide. Its book collection also includes a selection of Arabic literature, guidebooks, dictionaries and Arabic teaching books. The flagship store, where the first branch of the Segafredo Café in Jerusalem is located, "Books @ Café", has received uplifting reviews in the local and international media.

 Mahmoud and Ahmed Muna run the bookstore, which Mahmoud's father Ahmed founded in 1984, after 39 years in which he taught at a school in a UN refugee camp. He taught in the morning and opened the bookstore as a gathering place for the local community and for his children in the afternoon. "The school, the house and the bookstore were more or less one thing," said Muna in an interview he gave to The Guardian in 2023. He himself learned at this school. "Education as agent of change, both at the level of the individual and at the level of the community, is in the DNA of the bookstore," he asserted in the interview, and added: "It's a privilege to actually be in a place where the Palestinians and Israelis and internationals are meeting up.”