Cheltenham Literature Festival drops Israeli-linked partnership amid boycott threats

LONDON: Israeli police have raided a prominent Palestinian bookstore in East Jerusalem for the second time in a month, seizing dozens of books and arresting one of the owners.

Local reports said 61-year-old co-owner Imad Muna was detained for several hours after Israeli officers arrived at the Educational Bookshop on Tuesday morning without a warrant. During the raid, they confiscated about 50 books after searching the stock using Google Translate.

“At 11:15 a.m., the police arrived at the store, and my parents were there at the time,” Muna’s son, Ahmad, said. “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.”

In February, police arrested Ahmad and Muna’s brother, Mahmoud, holding them for several days without the State Attorney’s office approval to launch an investigation. They were later placed under house arrest for five days but have not been charged.

During the first raid, police cited a children’s coloring book as evidence of incitement to terrorism.

Similar to the latest incident, authorities confiscated books based on titles, appearance, and authors, including works by British artist Banksy, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, and US academic Noam Chomsky. Books containing visual elements associated with Palestine were also seized.

“They chose books by the cover, taking books that had a Palestinian flag, or just the word Palestine in the title,” another one of Muna’s brothers, Morad, said. “They were using Google Translate and took photos to send to their bosses.”

Police said the second raid followed a complaint from a man who visited the bookstore earlier that day, claiming to have seen books containing inciting content. Officers detained Muna “to verify his identity and details of the store,” police said, adding that they are reviewing three books seized during the operation.

“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,” the statement said.

After Muna was released on Tuesday afternoon, most of the books were returned and the shop reopened.

However, the bookstore’s owners said the raids are part of an escalating effort by Israeli authorities to suppress Palestinian culture and should not be seen as isolated incidents.

Rights groups and intellectuals condemned the first raid as an attempt to create a “culture of fear” among Palestinians and an attack on freedom of expression.

TIRANA: Albanian authorities have ordered all Internet service providers to block access to TikTok by Thursday.
Providers are required to block relevant IP addresses and DNS servers linked to the app, according to a statement by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority.
Prime Minister Edi Rama first announced the ban in December, after a confrontation that started on social media led to the killing of a 14-year-old student and another being injured in a fight near a school in the capital Tirana.
The killing sparked a debate about the impact of social networks on young people.
But the opposition has called for protests, saying the ban would have an impact on their campaign ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections in May.
TikTok has a huge following among young people with a never-ending scroll of ultra-brief videos and has more than one billion active users worldwide.
But the Chinese-owned platform has been regularly hit by controversy.
The app has faced allegations of espionage in the US and is under investigation by the European Union over claims it was used to sway Romania’s presidential election in favor of a far-right candidate.
Meanwhile in Albania, officials have slammed TikTok for its alleged role in promoting violence, including fighting at schools.
Elsewhere in the world, TikTok is regularly accused of confining users to content silos via an opaque algorithm and of promoting the spread of misinformation, along with illegal, violent, or obscene content — particularly among young people.
Several countries have banned it for varying periods, including Pakistan, Nepal and France in the territory of New Caledonia.
AFP, among more than a dozen other fact-checking organizations, is paid by TikTok in several countries to verify videos that potentially contain false information.