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What It Really Means to Be the ‘People of the Book’
The room full of Torah scrolls in Miami. Photo: Pini Dunner.
This week, Jewish communities worldwide will read Parshat Yitro, which recounts one of the most defining moments in Jewish history — God’s giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. These directives weren’t just words; they were the first written texts of Jewish tradition, forming the foundation of the Five Books of Moses, known as the Torah — the cornerstone of the Jewish faith. It was this moment that earned the Jews the title “People of the Book.”
But what does being “the People of the Book” really mean? It’s a title we’ve embraced for centuries, and it carries more than one meaning. We’re the people who received the book — the Torah, a divine blueprint for life. We’re also the people whose story is told in the book — the Bible is our collective narrative.
And perhaps most importantly, we’re the ones who’ve placed books at the center of our culture and identity — studying them, teaching from them, and passing their wisdom down through generations. Books aren’t just tools for us — they’re at the heart of what it means to be Jewish.
Clearly, books have always been at the core of Jewish life, tools to uplift and guide. But this week, books hit the headlines for a very different reason. In East Jerusalem, two booksellers, Mahmoud Muna and Munir Muna, were arrested at their widely known bookselling establishment, Educational Bookshop.
Israeli police claim the shop was selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism, and the two owners are being held on charges of disrupting public order. Cue the predictable global outrage: protests, op-eds, and online campaigns demanding the release of these “innocent booksellers.” The shop, after all, is described by its supporters as a “place of coexistence” and “a cultural hub.” But, as it turns out, that is not quite the whole story.
A post by my friend Saul Sadka on X (formerly Twitter) really made me stop and think. Saul met Mahmoud Muna five years ago when he joined a delegation from a center-left American Jewish group visiting the bookstore. The goal of the visit was dialogue, to create an atmosphere of understanding by “hearing the other side.”
But what Saul experienced was something else entirely. Instead of a pleasant bridge-building conversation, he and the group got an hour-long lecture dripping with thinly veiled antisemitism. Mahmoud sneered at the group’s efforts at coexistence and peppered his talk with tropes about Jewish power and “oblique references to their lack of connection to the land.”
Most of the delegation nodded along, possibly because they didn’t detect the malice in the subtext. But Saul and a few others left feeling sick to their stomachs.
“It wasn’t just antisemitic,” Saul wrote. “It reeked of genuine animus. He really enjoyed watching the Jews nodding along, completely unaware they were being mocked.” What struck me most was not only that this wasn’t dialogue but that it was derision disguised as intellectualism — because it took place in a bookshop and was delivered by a supposedly well-educated bookshop proprietor.
And this brings us to the heart of the matter. For Jews, books are sacred not simply because they exist, but because of what they contain and how they’re used. From the moment we received the Torah at Mount Sinai, books have been tools to build a better world — guiding us to live with purpose and integrity.
Contrast that with people like the Munas, who use books to spread hate, justify violence, and incite division. In their hands, books become weapons. That’s what the police claim was happening at the Educational Bookshop, and Saul’s experience suggests those claims are far from baseless. It makes you wonder — not just about the books they were selling but also about the books they chose not to sell.
Of course, the world’s reaction has been as predictable as ever. Mahmoud and Munir Muna have been cast as martyrs of free speech, celebrated as cultural icons targeted by an oppressive regime. No one seems to care about the content of the books they’re accused of selling. No one considers the harm such incitement can cause. The narrative is already fixed: Israel is the villain, and the booksellers are the victims.
But here’s the thing: not all books are created equal. And not everyone who champions books is a true “person of the book.” Being “people of the book” isn’t about celebrating any book just because it has words on a page. Like anything good, books can also be misused for bad.
The Torah, given at Sinai, is the original good book. It’s not just a collection of opinions or ideas — it’s a guide for living, a set of timeless truths meant to ground us and elevate us. That’s why Jews have spent millennia studying it, debating it, and teaching it — not to tear others down, but to build ourselves and the world up.
But when books are turned into tools of destruction — when they’re filled with hate and used to justify violence — even the staunchest advocates of free speech have the right to stand up and say, “Not on our watch.” And that’s exactly what’s happening here.
The Educational Bookshop, far from being a “center of coexistence,” appears to have been a hub for something far more sinister. Mahmoud and Munir Muna are not champions of free speech; they seem to be peddlers of incitement, hiding in plain sight behind the veneer of intellectualism.
The story of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai reminds us that being “people of the book” is a mission, not merely a title. It’s about holding the written word to the highest standard — using it to enlighten, not to inflame.
Each year, as we read the Ten Commandments in synagogues around the world, we are reminded of our sacred duty to recommit to that mission. We must stand against those who twist the power of books, making it clear that the book is not a prop for the basest human instincts. Books are tools — and how we choose to use them defines who we are.
Mahmoud and Munir Muna may run a bookstore, but that doesn’t make them “people of the book.” For them, books appear to have become weapons — tools to ensnare others in pseudo-intellectual justifications for hatred and violence.
We can never accept such a betrayal of the written word. For us Jews, books are sacred tools to enhance life, uplift society, and bring light to the world. And that’ s a difference worth standing up for — and fighting for.
The post What It Really Means to Be the ‘People of the Book’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Releases New Hostage Body It Claims Is Shiri Bibas
Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of deceased hostages, identified at the time by Palestinian terror groups as Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, were handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itay Cohen
Hamas released a body on Friday it claimed to be that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover this week threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Israeli medical authorities said forensic teams were preparing to examine the body, which Hamas transferred via the Red Cross, and confirm its identity.
The Palestinian terrorist group had agreed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth hostage on Thursday under the ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.
Four bodies were delivered and the identities of the Bibas boys and the other hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed.
But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians.
“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.
The failure to hand over the correct body and the staged public handover of the four coffins on Thursday caused outrage in Israel and drew a threat of retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.”
But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the boys were killed by the terrorists “with their bare hands,” but gave no details.
The UN Human Rights Office said it had no information of its own on the hostage deaths and called for an effective investigation into the causes.
“The return of the remains of the deceased is a basic humanitarian goal,” the office said.
The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with US backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.
SATURDAY EXCHANGE
Six living hostages were due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, according to Hamas, and the start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire was expected in the coming days.
“Hamas must return the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire – the living and the deceased,” Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said in a statement on social media platform X. “They have to bring Shiri back, and they have to release the 6 living hostages expected tomorrow.”
Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had been officially informed of the names of the six hostages to be released, which Hamas sources said was expected at around 8:30 am (0630 GMT).
As the tension over the Gaza ceasefire rose, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify operations in another Palestinian territory, the West Bank, after a number of explosions blew up buses standing empty in their depots near Tel Aviv.
No casualties were reported but the explosions were a reminder of the campaign of suicide attacks on public transport that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
‘THEY MAKE A JOKE OF US’
Both Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations, with Hamas threatening to delay the release of hostages over what it said was Israel‘s refusal to allow housing materials and other aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied.
The Red Cross told Reuters it was “concerned and unsatisfied” that the handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.
“It’s like they make a joke of us,” said 75-year-old Israeli Ilana Caspi. “We are so in grief and this is even more.”
One of the main groups representing hostage families said it was “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’ body had not been returned but called for the ceasefire to continue to bring back all 70 hostages still in Gaza.
“Save them from this nightmare,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Despite the outrage over Shiri Bibas, there was no indication that Israel would not take part in talks over a second phase of the ceasefire deal.
The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators were considering seeking an extension of the 42-day ceasefire, to delay moving to a second phase, which would involve talks over hard-to-resolve issues including an end to the war and the future of Hamas in Gaza.
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US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has lambasted fellow Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her previous suggestions that the United States cut funding to Israel for humanitarian purposes.
Mace posted on social media that she is currently visiting Israel to witness the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks which left roughly 1,200 dead and 250 abducted.
“I’m in Israel where last night 3 buses were bombed. I’m here to see the evil that invaded Israel and deeply harmed her Jewish people on 10/7,” Mace wrote.
“We gave $9 billion in humanitarian and disaster aid for Gaza last year – at least half of which, $4.5 billion since AOC can’t count, ended up funding terrorism. Our resources have enabled mass terrorism in Gaza and elsewhere. See UN and USAID as additional examples,” Mace continued. “Also – what’s democracy to terrorists who want to kill all Jews and Christians. Move to Gaza since you and your caucus love Hamas so much.”
Observers have argued that humanitarian funding for Gaza, including money from the US, often ends up going to the Hamas terrorist group, the most powerful and organized faction in the Palestinian enclave. Many countries, including the US, have paused funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is responsible for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, for harboring close ties to Hamas terrorists. The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed staff, including teachers and school principals, directly participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Mace was responding to an April 2024 clip from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” in which Ocasio-Cortez accused Israel of inflicting a famine on Gaza as revenge for Oct. 7. The firebrand progressive accused Israel of “human rights” violations in Gaza and argued that the Jewish state has undermined Palestinian “civil rights.” Ocasio-Cortez lamented that “US taxpayer assistance” has helped facilitate what she considers a dereliction of American values.
“It’s not just about Israel. It’s not just about Gaza. This is about us, because this is US taxpayer assistance and what is being financed with our resources, and if any conflict is going to have US resources, then it does become a matter of our values,” Ocasio-Cortez said to Stephen Colbert.
She then called on the United States to reaffirm its “commitment to human rights, to the sanctity of civil rights, to the rules of war” by canceling arms transfers to Israel.
Over the past year, Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly condemned the Jewish state’s response to the Hamas terrorist group’s brutal Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel. She has accused the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, arguing that the conflict has been “generationally radicalizing” for young Americans. She has also boasted of leading a “whip operation” to garner votes from fellow Democrats to block aid to Israel.
Since entering Congress in 2021, Mace has often defended Israel. Earlier this week, Mace repudiated Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid for holding a map that depicts the elimination of Israel. In May 2024, Mace defended Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as “biblical warfare,” and she has slammed her Democratic colleagues for not being more outspoken about the widespread rapes of Israeli women during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 rampage.
“I can’t think of anything more shameful than to see these women’s groups, to see women on the left, women in the House, my colleagues on the left who refuse to say what this is, which is shameful. It’s disgusting. It’s barbaric,” she said. “And we ought to be condemning it from every corner of our country. Every woman should be condemning this. And I think it’s shameful.”
The post US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Swarthmore College Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Over Building Takeover
Illustrative: 2023-2024 anti-Israel encampment installed on the Swarthmore College campus in Pennsylvania. Photo: Screenshot
Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has temporarily barred Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from operating on its campus while school officials investigate the group’s surprise but unsuccessful attempt to take over an administrative building earlier this week.
“We cannot ignore the ways in which some of the behavior we experienced Wednesday put the safety and well-being of our community at risk,” college president Valerie Smith, the school’s highest ranking official, said in a statement. “Wednesday’s actions constitute significant, numerous violations of the Student Code of Conduct, and individuals found responsible for violating college policies will be held accountable.”
She continued, “We have notified Swarthmore’s SJP chapter that the group is on an interim suspension effective immediately. During this interim period, SJP will be unable to access college funs, schedule or host events on campus, or access any other college resources available to student organizations.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, SJP raided the college’s Parrish Hall dressed like Hamas fighters, their faces wrapped with and concealed by keffiyehs. The move came as a surprise. While the group had announced an “emergency rally” scheduled for noon that day, there was little indication that it planned on commandeering the building and remaining inside of it indefinitely.
By the time the college formally warned the students that their behavior would trigger disciplinary measures, they had shouted slogans through bullhorns, attempted to break into offices that had been locked to keep them out, and pounded the doors of others that refused to admit them access. Meanwhile, SJP collaborators reportedly circumvented security’s lockdown of the building to smuggle food inside. Several students then grew impatient and attempted to end the lockdown themselves by raiding the building, and in doing so caused a physical altercation with security, whom they proceeded to pelt with expletives and other imprecations.
“What the f—k is your problem?” a female student, captured in video shared by The Phoenix, the official campus newspaper, can be heard screaming at an official who used his body to block a protester from forcing his way inside. “B—ch! F—k you! Stop f—king touching people, bruh!”
The protest lasted 11 hours, according to The Phoenix, after which communications vice president Andy Hirsch suggested that no one would be punished over the incident because SJP evacuated the building before an 11pm deadline set by student affairs vice president Stephanie Ives.
Smith’s latest statement on the incident walked back Hirsch’s, stressing that SJP committed egregious infractions of the school’s code of conduct.
“SJP organized and led the actions described above, creating an untenable learning, living, and working environment that no member of our community should have to endure. The group’s alleged behavior runs counter to the college’s values and our commitment to inclusivity and well-being,” she said. “As we uphold and promote the important role of peaceful protest and dissent, I hope we will do so in ways that result in meaningful, productive dialogue rather than deeper divisions.”
Swarthmore College is not the first US college or university to see the attempted takeover of school property this semester, and it is one of several to levy sanctions against either an entire chapter or its individual members.
Earlier this month, SJP installed an encampment inside Bowdoin’s College Smith Union to demand a boycott of Israel and signal its opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposing that Gazans be resettled elsewhere while the Palestinian enclave is transformed into a hub for tourism and job creation under American control. Bowdoin, moving quickly to quell the disruption, persuaded its students to abandon the effort after just four days by levying interim suspensions on several dozen of them and notifying their families.
Days before, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suspended both Students for Justice in Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine following their vandalizing the home of a Jewish member of the Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California system.
According to The Daily Bruin, on Feb. 5 roughly 50 of the groups’ members amassed on the property of UC Regent Jay Sures and threatened that he must “divest now or pay.” As part of the demonstration, the students imprinted their hands, which had been submerged in red paint to symbolize the spilling of blood, all over Sures’ garage door and cordoned the area with caution tape.
The behavior crossed the line, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in an email, portions of which were quoted by The Bruin and can be found online, sent to the entire student body.
“Rigorous, healthy dialogue is central to everything we do to advance knowledge,” he explained. “What there should never be room for is violence. No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work, and live — much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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