“In a place where books are burned, people will eventually be burned as well,” wrote the 19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine. This is not just an antiquated and obsolete saying from the distant past; it is quickly becoming our reality in 2025.

On Sunday, Israeli police raided the two Educational Bookshop stores in East Jerusalem, ripping, vandalizing, and confiscating books and arresting owners Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad. This was not a random, rogue act. It was carried out by court order under the pretext of “suspicion of disturbing public order.”

The two bookstores, in the courtyard of the American Colony Hotel and on Salah al-Din Street, are long-standing, respected cultural institutions, part of the public order in Jerusalem, not its violation. The police officers who broke into the stores are the ones who violated and trampled not only the order but also morality and the basic democratic values of freedom of opinion and thought.

We know what happened in Heinrich........

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