Israeli security forces arrested the owner of a bookstore in the Old City of Jerusalem over the weekend on suspicion of selling pro-terror inciting material, including works by slain senior Hezbollah and Hamas terror leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya Sinwar, the Israel Police announced on Monday.
The bookstore was discovered after police officers searched the bag of a female suspect in the Old City and found the pro-terror content, according to the statement. During questioning, she claimed to have purchased the materials from a nearby bookshop a short time earlier.
נעצר בעל חנות בעיר העתיקה בירושלים, לאחר שמכר ספרים המכילים תכני הסתה ותמיכה בטרור, בהם ספרים של רבי המרצחים יחיא סינוואר וחסן נסראללה
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) February 3, 2025
במהלך פעילות שביצעו שוטרי מרחב דוד בסוף השבוע נבדקה אישה, כאשר במסגרת בדיקתה נמצאו בתיקה ספרים המכילים תכני הסתה. בתשאול טענה כי רכשה את אלו זמן… pic.twitter.com/rjAwUkpE02
Officers of the Israel Police’s David Precinct subsequently discovered that the store was selling numerous books containing “inciting and terrorist content, the sale and distribution of which is prohibited.”
In addition to the publications by Nasrallah and Sinwar, the bookstore also sold writings of Abdullah Barghouti—a Palestinian bombmaker responsible for multiple attacks that claimed the lives of 66 people.
The store owner, identified as a resident of the Old City, was detained and the business received a closure order for 30 days, police stated.
The Israel Defense Forces filed 303 indictments for online incitement to terror in Judea and Samaria in 2024, compared to only 60 to 70 per year before Oct. 7, 2023, according to Hebrew media reports on Wednesday.
In 2015, at the peak of the so-called “Knife Intifada” terror attacks, 150 indictments were filed for online terror incitement, according to Ynet.
