Israeli police arrest Palestinian Jerusalem Governor

Jerusalem, April 6 (IANS) Israeli authorities arrested the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governor over “illegal” activities, Israel’s police said.

“Adnan Ghaith was detained this morning for illegal activity in Jerusalem connected to the Palestinian Authority,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua on Sunday. Rosenfeld added that Ghaith is currently “being questioned by police units.”

Video footage surfaced on social media showed Ghaith wearing gloves and a mask being escorted by police officers out of his home in the neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

Ghaith’s attorney, Rami Othman, told the Times of Israel that the arrest was made mainly due to activities Ghaith has carried out in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Last year, Ghaith was arrested at least six times by Israeli police over suspicion of breaking an Israeli law that bans carrying out activities by the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem.

Israel seized East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed East Jerusalem shortly later, claiming it part of its “indivisible capital.”

–IANS

rt/