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

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. Most of the city’s Palestinian population lives in east Jerusalem, and the Palestinians want it to be the capital of their future state.

The three-story bookstore, raided Sunday, has a large selection of books, mainly in Arabic and English, about the conflict and the wider Middle East, including many by Israeli and Jewish authors. It hosts cultural events and is especially popular among researchers, journalists and foreign diplomats.

The bookstore’s owners, Ahmed and Mahmoud Muna, were detained, and police confiscated hundreds of titles related to the conflict before ordering the store’s closure, according to May Muna, Mahmoud’s wife.

She said the soldiers picked out books with Palestinian titles or flags, “without knowing what any of them meant.” She said they used Google Translate on some Arabic titles to see what they meant before carting them away in plastic bags.

In a statement, the police said the two owners were arrested on suspicion of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism.”

As an example, the police referred to an English-language children’s coloring book titled “From the River to the Sea,” a reference to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that today includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Muna brothers were in court in Jerusalem on Monday. Israel police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne said a judge for the Jerusalem District Court denied the brothers’ appeal and the two will remain in police custody for at least another night as police carry out additional investigations. Elsdunne said the books, especially those aimed at children, carried a “clear danger” for the public.