( Middle East Monitor ) – British travel writer Matthew Teller has resigned from the Society of Authors (SoA) in protest at the organisation’s response to Israel’s arrest of Palestinian booksellers in occupied East Jerusalem.
Teller’s resignation came after Israeli police arrested his friend and co-author Mahmoud Muna, along with Muna’s nephew Ahmad Muna, from the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem. The police ransacked the premises and confiscated hundreds of books, initially claiming they were investigating “incitement and supporting terrorism” before changing the charge to “disturbing public order.”
Teller is the author of 
Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City. Penguin Random House, 2022. Click here to buy..
A review of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem is here..
In his resignation letter, Teller strongly criticised the SoA’s statement on the incident, writing: “When my friend and co-author – a writer, bookseller, publisher and cultural advocate – has his premises ransacked by police and is dragged away in handcuffs in front of his 11-year-old daughter, then dumped in a cell while police confiscate hundreds of books… and my own trade union turns its back, I cannot let it stand.”:
I've resigned from the UK Society of Authors pic.twitter.com/gprB5SmeSt
— Matthew Teller (@matthewteller) February 18, 2025
Teller accused the SoA of obscuring the facts by omitting crucial details about the incident. “The police were Israeli. The location was Jerusalem. The writer and bookseller they abused is named Mahmoud Muna. He was arrested with his relative Ahmad Muna. They are Palestinian. The bookshop is not a nameless, generic institution: it is a business that trades under the name of The Educational Bookshop.”
The Educational Bookshop, founded in 1984, specialises in Arabic and English books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jerusalem’s history. All books sold in the shop are cleared by Israeli authorities upon import.
According to Saqi Books publishing house, both Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna were held for 24 hours before being placed under seven days house arrest. During the raid, police reportedly used Google Translate to assess book content and confiscated any publications featuring Palestinian flags.
“They even found a Haaretz newspaper with a picture of the hostages and asked what it was, saying it was incitement,” said Murad Muna, Mahmoud’s brother.
Teller concluded his resignation letter by stating he would cancel his membership “until such time as the SoA finds its backbone and starts standing up for me and writers like me.”
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