JERUSALEM, Monday, July 20, 2020 (WAFA) – The Jerusalem Governorate today strongly condemned the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision to arrest Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Jerusalem Governor Adnan Ghaith.
Ghaith, who is also s legitimate Palestinian leader and representative in occupied East Jerusalem, was detained Sunday at his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on allegation of working on behalf of the PA in the Israeli-occupied section of the city and taken to the Russian Compound police station in West Jerusalem, where he was kept overnight before being brought to court today for his remand.
The Israeli authorities has lately remanded Gaith, who has been detained over 18 times, and transferred him to investigation cells in Asqalan Prison. Israel continues to restrict the governor's movement, and prevent him from speaking to fellow Palestinian personalities.
“East Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory. According to international law and United Nations resolutions, including UN Resolutions 242, 338 and 2334, Israel's occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territory, including occupied East Jerusalem, is null and void,” the Jerusalem Govenorate said in its statement.
“Since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel, the occupying power, has attempted and continues to unilaterally and illegally alter the demographic and character of the occupied city. In the absence of accountability and with impunity granted by the US administration, Israel's lawmakers have been intensely launching attacks against Palestinians in Jerusalem, by increasing colonial-settlement expansion in the city and by its continuous denial of their right to self-determination as an integral part of Palestine.”
The Jerusalem Governorate called on representatives of the international community to put pressure on Israel for the immediate release of Gaith.
“We reiterate our call upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for decades of violations of international humanitarian law and international law, mainly the sacred right of self-determination for the people of Palestine.”
K.T/ K.F.
