LONDON: A British writer has resigned from the Society of Authors after it released a statement following a raid by Israeli police on Palestinian-owned bookstores in East Jerusalem.
Matthew Teller said the statement, which failed to mention the names of the booksellers, Israel or Palestine, was a “betrayal” that added “insult to injury” for the individuals detained.
Two branches of the Educational Bookshop were raided on Feb. 9. Police arrested Mahmoud Muna, who co-authored the book “Daybreak in Gaza” with Teller, and his nephew Ahmed Muna.
Around 250 books were taken in the raid, but most were subsequently returned to the stores. Murad Muna, Mahmoud’s brother, said Israeli police were using Google Translate to identify “anything they didn’t like the look of,” including any book “with a Palestinian flag on it.”
A police statement said Mahmoud and Ahmed were initially charged with “inciting and supporting terrorism,” and “detectives encountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes, including a children’s colouring book titled ‘From the River to the Sea.’”
The pair were eventually released and placed under house arrest, with their charges downgraded to “disturbing public order,” their lawyer said.
Protesters gathered outside a court hearing for the pair on Feb. 10, which was also attended by diplomats from the UK and several other European countries.
The SoA’s statement said: “We are concerned by recent press reports on the police raid of an educational bookshop in a country which is governed by a parliamentary democracy.”
Teller said he hoped the SoA “would have taken this opportunity to illuminate the evils of state censorship and defend those who seek to practise freedom. Instead, it obscured understanding of the issues with platitudes and irrelevant assertions. It was an abject failure.
“I wholeheartedly support writers who are able to remain engaged with the SoA, and I recognise the value in urgent ongoing efforts to force change, but I, regretfully, can no longer tolerate such equivocation from a trade union that purports to represent me.”
An SoA spokesperson said it is “saddened when any of our members decide to leave us,” but “we considered that recent press reports provided an opportunity to the SoA to remind our members of its position on book bans.”
More than £30,000 ($37,925) were raised for the booksellers by a GoFundMe campaign organized by Saqi Books in London to help pay for damages, replace lost books and loss of income until Mahmoud and Ahmed are permitted by Israeli authorities to return to work.
Saqi Books is also launching #BooksellingIsNotACrime Day on Saturday in partnership with Pluto Press, with participating booksellers and organizations encouraged to donate to the fundraiser and raise the profile of Palestinian writers.
