Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh for PNN – The Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian Authority was arrested this morning.
Hatem Abdel Kader was held for investigation at the Israeli police station next to the post office on East Jerusalem’s Salah Addin Street.
For eight hours the Palestinian official was questioned in an ongoing campaign of harassment of Jerusalem citizens which includes closing art exhibits, banning cultural events, destroying homes and confiscating identification.
The Minister of Israeli Internal Security said on Sunday evening that Abdel Kader is banned from nearing East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood from which Palestinians are being evicted. A solidarity tent became the home of the elderly Umm Kamal Al Kurd last year and international attention has been drawn to the plight of citizens who are losing everything. Sheikh Jarrah is one of numerous Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that the Israeli administration is overtaking for settlements in a move that even has the US calling for an end.
Israeli settlers and police had attempted to storm the home of Darwish Hijazi that the nonviolent Palestinian resistance was protecting. Among citizens, officials and media present was Abdel Kader.
The defense for the Palestinian official views the case as part of ongoing efforts to silence Kader and his colleagues while the overtaking of Jerusalem continues.
