Jerusalem bookstores under fire for anti-Israel content

File Source: NPR

Several bookstores in Jerusalem are facing mounting scrutiny after Israeli police arrested owners and shut down shops accused of selling books promoting terrorism and anti-Israel incitement.

In February, police arrested the owners of two branches of the *Educational Bookshop* on Salah Eddin Street for allegedly distributing material that supported terrorism. The stores were temporarily closed, and one was shuttered again on March 11.

Just days earlier, another Arab-owned bookstore in the Old City was closed after being linked to sales of books by senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures, Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya Sinwar. That store remains closed.

The controversy now extends to *The Gateway*, a cafe and bookstore located near the New Gate in the Christian Quarter. A recent patron showed JNS a photo of the pro-BDS book *Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights* by BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, which he said was purchased there.

Barghouti has publicly stated, “Most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian—rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian—will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

While Israeli law doesn’t criminalize the sale of BDS materials, the 2011 Anti-Boycott Law allows for civil lawsuits against those promoting boycotts of Israel.

The Gateway’s Facebook page also displays titles by Ghassan Kanafani, a former spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the U.S., EU, and Israel. Kanafani was assassinated by Israel in 1972 for his role in the Lod Airport Massacre, which killed 26 people. Other controversial titles include works by Raja Shehadeh, founder of Al-Haq, which Israel designated a terrorist group in 2021 for ties to the PFLP.

Tony Sabella, a self-identified “Palestinian from Jerusalem” and owner of The Gateway, defended his selection. “BDS is one of the nonviolent ways we can resist the occupation and a very peaceful way for demonstrating against the oppression,” he said. Sabella claimed that all books in his shop had cleared Israeli customs and would be removed if banned.

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King called for harsher enforcement against shops spreading what he described as “antisemitic” and “anti-Israeli sentiment.” He added, “If it doesn’t suit him [the owner] to live and work and make money in the Jewish state, he is welcome to leave.”

Chaim Silberstein, head of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP), emphasized the danger such materials pose to coexistence and public trust. “Promoting initiatives such as BDS is incompatible with the values of good neighborliness, coexistence and peace,” he said.

A request for comment from the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit went unanswered by press time.