RAMALLAH, September 6, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Tuesday arrested member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from Jerusalem, Mohammad Abu Tir, after raiding his home in Kufr Aqab neighborhood, south of Ramallah, said Palestinian sources.

They said Abu Tir was prevented from talking to his family and was taken to an unknown location.

Abu Tir, elected to the PLC as member of the Hamas-affiliated Reform and Change Bloc in the 2006 elections, spent a total of 30 years in Israeli jails.

He was stripped of his residency status in Jerusalem and was then forcefully expelled to the West Bank in December after serving four years in Israeli jails following an Israeli crackdown on Hamas lawmakers after the abduction of an Israeli soldier near Gaza.

After his release, Israel decided to strip Abu Tir, and two other Hamas lawmakers from Jerusalem and a former minister, of their right to live in the occupied city under the pretext of “not being loyal to the state of Israel.”

After losing  the appeal against their forced expulsion from Jerusalem, Abu Tir was taken from jail to a checkpoint outside Ramallah where he was told to stay in Ramallah and not to return to Jerusalem or else he would be arrested again.

The other PLC members, Ahmad Atton and Mohammad Totah, along with former Jerusalem affairs minister, Khaled Abu Arafeh, sought political refuge in the Red Cross compound in East Jerusalem more than a year ago, where they remain till this moment.

R.Q./M.A.