Israeli police have seized books, including a children's colouring-in book, from a Palestinian-run shop, arresting two members of the family who have run the store for more than four decades.
Mahmoud and Ahmed Muna appeared in the Jerusalem Trial Court on Monday, accused of breaching public peace, following raids on their family bookshop on Sunday afternoon.
The Educational Bookshop has been a literary haven in the Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem since 1984, selling tomes about Palestinian and Middle Eastern culture and current affairs.
Israeli police with search warrants arrived at two of the shops on Sunday afternoon, scouring the shelves and seizing hundreds of books with Palestinian authors, titles and imagery.
"They think that there is dangerous items in the bookshops," Mahmoud's brother and Ahmed's uncle, Murad Muna, told the ABC.
"They started searching for 1 hour, just throwing books on the floor … they didn't understand what the books are talking about, so they used Google translate to understand.
"Almost all of the books are English books, which are written by Israeli and Palestinian and European authors.
"They are talking about the conflict. They have both sides of the issue."
Many of the books were returned, but about eight were kept by police as part of their evidence to be taken to court.
Among them was a colouring-in book, From the River to the Sea, by a South African illustrator — the title referring to a Palestinian resistance phrase.
"Why are you worried about it? Why do you feel triggered?" Mahmoud's wife Mai asked outside court.
Ms Muna was inside court as her husband and nephew were brought in after spending a night in police custody in Jerusalem's Russian Compound district.
"Mahmoud looks a little bit tired, Ahmed as well, but I know they are strong enough," she said.
Nasser Oday, who was representing the two men in court, argued they were being wrongly detained.
"We will call for their immediate release because this is a political and not a legal detention," he told reporters.
"[Police] claim that the charge is disturbing public peace … they claim that they are selling political books that are not in line with the Israeli politics.
"We claim that this is a violation of the right of the citizens to express their opinion, who are protected by the intranational law and the Israeli law as well."
Police said there were numerous books in the shop "containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes" and directly mentioned the colouring-in book.
"The Israel Police will continue its efforts to thwart incitement and support for terrorism, as well as apprehend those involved in offenses that threaten the security of Israel's citizens," it said in a statement.
Police prosecutors asked the court to hold the men for another 8 days.
The judge only agreed to continue their detention for another 24 hours, and said they might be released on Tuesday, local time, on strict conditions — including five days' house arrest and a 15-day ban on entering the bookshops.
Protesters warn of creeping authoritarianism in Israel
In court, the men's defence lawyer said their arrest immediately reminded him of two moments in history.
"The first was in 1258, when the Mongols invaded Baghdad in Iraq," Mr Oday told the court.
"They invaded the libraries — they confiscated the books, burned them and threw a great many of them into the Tigris River in hope, according to the writers and the historians, to control the knowledge and the minds.
"The second incident was — and I am not comparing, it's important for me to emphasise, your honour — but in 1933 in Germany, in the persecution of the Jewish community, they arrested writers, authors, artists out of a fear that this art would be a criticism of all the atrocities that the Nazi regime perpetrated against the Jews and others."
Supporters of the men gathered outside the court house with banners and megaphones, chanting slogans that Israel was a "fascist state" and holding placards saying "cowards confiscate books".
Among them was Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nathan Thrall, who had launched his book A Day in the Life of Abed Salama at the Educational Bookshop.
He said he was outraged by the raids, but not surprised.
"It's part of what is a widely documented increase in authoritarianism here," he told the ABC.
"But it's really important to emphasise that when we talk about authoritarianism here, that we're not implicitly describing [Israel] as a democracy that's sliding into authoritarianism.
"Any state that for decades has ruled over millions of people, depriving them of basic rights on the basis of their inborn characteristics, does not fit any definition of democracy that I know of."
Bookshop opens its doors despite raids
The Muna family were determined to reopen the bookshop on Monday, even with Mahmoud and Ahmed still in police custody.
"Our business is not only a money business — I mean, it's an idea, we have a case to struggle for," Murad said.
"We know even that we pay the price, we should continue because we are on the right side."
