Dozens of people gathered outside a Jerusalem court to protest the arrest of two Palestinian booksellers in the city’s east, AFP reports.

The protesters shouted slogans denouncing Israel as a “fascist state” and held placards accusing the country of “cowardice”.

Mahmud and Ahmad Muna, who were arrested on Sunday, were to appear in the court for an arraignment. Both work for the Educational Bookshop, a cultural institution in east Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem District police officers have arrested two residents of east Jerusalem suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism,” police said in a statement.

During the operation, the police found books on “nationalist Palestinian themes”, the statement said, adding police were asking the court for an extension of the booksellers’ detention.

The Muna family’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said “hundreds of books” had been seized on Sunday.

Sidra Ezrahi, an Israeli-American taking part in the demonstration, called the arrests “unbelievable”.

“We’ve been coming to this bookshop not for years but for generations,” the protester in her 80s said, adding the arrests were “exactly what fascist states are doing”.