Israel detains Palestinian governor of Jerusalem

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces detained the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem Thursday, taking him from his home in the city's east for interrogation, a police spokesman said.

Adnan Ghaith's apprehension came a day after Israeli authorities closed the offices of two Palestinian Authority-affiliated organisations in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) official has been arrested or detained by Israel at least six times in the past year. In the most recent incident on October 14, Israel arrested Ghaith on the charge of "exercising sovereignty in Jerusalem" before releasing him on bail.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Ghaith's latest apprehension from his Silwan home was over "Palestinian activity in Jerusalem," without giving further details.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

It considers the entire occupied city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Israel bans all PA activities in the city.

As a result, the PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in Al-Ram, just on the other side of an Israeli-built wall - called an "apartheid wall" by many Palestinians - that separates the city in the occupied West Bank.

Police had previously investigated Ghaith over suspicions he was involved in the PA's arrest in October 2018 of American-Palestinian Issam Akel, who was accused of involvement in selling an east Jerusalem building to Jewish buyers.

Such sales are considered treasonous among Palestinians who oppose Jewish settlers buying property in occupied east Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces closed the Jerusalem offices of Palestine TV, which is funded by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as well as an office of the Palestinian ministry of education in the city.

Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan accused the TV channel of producing anti-Israel content, vowing Wednesday to "continue to pursue a firm policy against any attempt by the Palestinian Authority to violate our sovereignty in the capital."