Israeli police arrest Palestinian officials in al-Quds

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Israeli police arrested the Palestinian governor of Occupied al-Quds and a local official of the mainstream Fatah party in dawn raids on Monday in the disputed city, their lawyer said.

Police arrested governor Adnan Ghaith and the Fatah general secretary for Occupied al-Quds, Shadi Mutour, in raids on their homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, lawyer Mohammed Mahmud told AFP.

He said they were accused of engaging in activity on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in the city. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that "two representatives were arrested by police and are being questioned", but did not confirm their names or give any further detail.

PA activities in Occupied al-Quds are barred by Israel, which occupied east Occupied al-Quds in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

About 320,000 Palestinians live in east Occupied al-Quds. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned Ghaith’s arrest in a strongly-worded statement. "Governor Ghaith’s detention is an act of political persecution," she wrote. "It is an illegal abduction that must be roundly and firmly condemned by all concerned parties."

"Israel is waging war against everything Palestinian in Occupied al-Quds," she added. Ghaith has been taken in for police questioning several times. The last time was on April 14, when Mahmud said his client was accused of breaching an order banning him from visiting the occupied West Bank.