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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| PLC member released, barred from prayer |
| 2010-08-28 |
| [Ma'an] Israeli police detained Palestinian Legislative Council member Sheikh Hamed Al-Betawi on his way to prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, family members said. The Palestinian lawmaker, who was elected as a member of Hamas' Change and Reform bloc, called his son from the Israeli interrogation center at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem, saying he had been detained. His son told Ma'an that the 47-year-old official was detained from a checkpoint erected by Israeli border police inside the Old City. Al-Betawi had been on his way to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Shortly after 1.30 on Friday afternoon, when the noon prayer had finished, Al-Betawi was released and told to leave the city, without being permitted to enter Al-Aqsa for a late prayer. An Israeli police spokesman said he was unfamiliar with the event. Al-Betawi is a resident of Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank. He had traveled from his home, through the Qalandiya military checkpoint in the central West Bank and south to Jerusalem before he was detained in the Old City. Four PLC members who reside in Jerusalem were threatened with deportation in June, following Israeli threats to strip the men of their residency rights. The lawmakers are members of the Hamas party. Israeli officials said that because the political movement was designated as a terrorist organization, the men would have to renounce their ties if they wished to remain Jerusalem residents. All four were born in Jerusalem before 1967 when it was illegally annexed by Israel and included in the borders of an Israeli state. The men refused to break ties with their party, saying they were legally elected representatives of the Palestinian people. On 30 July, one of the four, Mohammad Abu Tier, was detained and remains in Israeli police custody pending trial, where he seeks to overturn his deportation orders. UN officials have said they are closely following the issue. In early July, Robery Serry, the UN special coordinator for Middle East peace, expressed concern over the legality of deportation threats, and asked Israel "to respect its obligations under international law," his spokesman Richard Miron said. "We are closely following reports that four Palestinian legislators have received orders for their forcible transfer from East Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities," Miron said in a statement. "We are concerned at all measures which may heighten tension in the city and at the potentially broad consequences for Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |