Israeli police raided Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem for the second time in a month, detaining one of its owners, Imad Muna, for several hours and confiscating about 50 books, the Guardian reported. After the first raid in February, the deputy state attorney's office had warned police they overstepped their authority.
Co-owner Morad Muna said the police "chose books by the cover, taking books that had a Palestinian flag, or just the word Palestine in the title. They were using Google Translate and took photos to send to their bosses."
After confiscating the books, the police "locked the shop and left with the key, taking Imad Muna to a nearby police station before releasing him without charge in the afternoon," the Guardian wrote, adding that when the arrests occurred last month, prosecutors had met with police officers to ensure "such incidents don't happen again," as the office of the deputy state attorney said in a letter to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel about the case.
A police spokesperson contended that they made the second raid after getting a complaint from a man who visited the bookstore on Tuesday morning and "stated that he had observed books containing inciting content."
The officers detained Imad Muna "to verify his identity and details of the store," according to their statement. "Based on the findings, a determination will be made on whether to refer the matter to the state attorney's office for further investigation into the suspected sale of inciting materials."
Co-owner Ahmad Muna told Haaretz: "At 11:15 A.M., the police arrived at the store, and my parents were there at the time. The police asked for the business licenses and reviewed the account books. I arrived but they wouldn't let me in. They went through the books, stacked a pile of books that they took." He added that among the confiscated books were works by British artist Banksy, linguist Noam Chomsky, and historian Ilan Pappé. "After an hour, they arrested my father, told my mother to close the store, and took the key. They didn't tell us which station they were taking my father to."