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Israeli police raided two branches of East Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop on Sunday and detained its owners, prompting outrage among Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals and adding to fears that Israel is cracking down on freedom of expression.
A police statement originally said officers arrested Mahmoud Muna and Ahmad Muna on charges of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism”, but then changed the charges to suspicion of disturbing public order. Police requested an eight-day extension of their detention on Monday, with a judge eventually ordering the pair be held for an extra day.
Specialising in English and Arabic titles relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Educational Bookshop chain is one of the most well-known bookshops in the Holy Land and an intellectual centre frequented by tourists, journalists, activists and diplomats.
Police combed through books, confiscating dozens in a raid on Sunday. They said: “Detectives encountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes, including a children's colouring book titled From the River to the Sea."
Pictures circulated by an Israeli journalist of one of the shops after the police raid showed dozens of books strewn across the floor.
The pair’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said the arrest was “illegal” and “part of the political suppression against people in East Jerusalem”. He added that after the extra day of detention, both would be released under house arrest for five days and banned from entering their shops for 15 days.
Israel has long faced accusations that it suppresses critical material but critics say the problem has become far worse since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023. Since then, professors have been arrested and people hounded out of workplaces for expressing solidarity with Palestinians.
A small crowd of Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators gathered in support of the pair on Monday morning, as both appeared in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Inside, representatives from Belgium, Brazil, the EU, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, as well as numerous international journalists, gathered to attend proceedings.
Nathan Thrall, author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the conflict, told The National outside the court that the arrest was an “outrage”.
“It sends a chilling message to all Palestinians in Jerusalem because these are two of the most well-connected people, people who you would think would be the most immune from this sort of abuse,” he said.
Steffen Seibert, German ambassador to Israel, said he was “concerned to hear of the raid”.
“I, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at Educational Bookshop. I know its owners, the Muna family, to be peace-loving proud Palestinian Jerusalemites, open for discussion and intellectual exchange,” Mr Seibert said in a post on X.
Palestinian professor Dalal Saeb Iriqat described the arrests as “a war on knowledge and truth”.
“Israel is systematically silencing educators, journalists and intellectuals – those who empower society through learning and free thought,” Prof Iriqat wrote on Facebook. “Arresting bookstore owners is the act of a regime terrified of knowledge. Targeting educators is a [war crime]. We demand the immediate release of Ahmad and Mahmoud Muna.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
