Israeli police raid two Palestinian bookstores in East Jerusalem on Sunday, confiscating books and arresting one of the owners and his nephew, his family members said. CCTV footage shared by the owners, four brothers from the Muna family, showed police officers dumping books into garbage bags at a branch of the Educational Bookshop, a decades-old prestigious institution with Arabic and English language branches.
“They threw some books on the ground, but the material in the Arabic (language) store itself has been damaged,” store owner Iyad Muna told CNN.
Photos of the Arabic-language store shared by Muna showed books, notebooks and writing materials scattered on the ground. On Monday, an Israeli court extended the detention period of the two men – Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna – by 24 hours, after which they will be placed under house arrest for five days.
Police had originally sought to extend their detention period by eight days while the investigation continues. Representatives from the diplomatic missions of the European Union, several EU member states, the United Kingdom and Brazil were present in court ahead of the hearing, according to a CNN journalist.
Israeli police said in a statement on Monday that the two men had been arrested on suspicion of “selling books inciting and supporting terrorism.” “The suspects who allegedly sold the books have been taken into custody by police detectives,” the police spokesperson’s unit said.
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