The police said the stores were selling books that supported terrorism, and that two of their owners had been arrested. A brother of the owners decried the raid as “political persecution.”

The Educational Bookshop, established over 40 years ago, is a hub of intellectual life in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to its capital in a move not recognized internationally.

On Thursday, laws passed by Israel in October come into effect banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli officials from any contact with the agency.

Israeli police have raided a long-established Palestinian-owned bookstore in east Jerusalem, detaining the owners and confiscating books about the decades-long conflict. The police said the books incited violence.

Israeli police raided two branches of a landmark bookstore in east Jerusalem on Sunday night, confiscating several dozen books and detaining two of the owners overnight. According to Imad Muna, one of the Educational Bookshop’s proprietors,