East Jerusalem parliamentarian arrested, facing "deportation"

Facing possible “deportation” — whatever that means in the circumstances — from East Jerusalem, Mohammad Abu Tir, a Hamas-affiliated politician elected in January 2006 to the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC), was arrested this afternoon in Jerusalem (where he is not supposed to be, any more) reportedly by undercover Israeli police disguised as Palestinians, and taken to the Russian Compound in West Jerusalem, where —  if he’s lucky —  he may have a court hearing tomorrow.

A month ago, he was released from jail after serving more than four years, basically for having been elected to the local Palestinian parliament on the Hamas-backed Change and Reform Party ticket.

YNet reported tonight that “During a Shin Bet interrogation just hours after his release, Abu-Tir was told he had to leave his hometown Jerusalem within a month (by June 19).  ‘I don’t know what to say, this is an injustice which reflects an attempt at extortion’, Abu-Tir said to Ynet at the time. ‘They told me I must remain in my village (Umm Tuba) and never go to the city. I don’t know the reason for this’.”

Instead, Ynet reported, “Palestinian sources said Abu-Tir was arrested as he left his village, and that among those who arrested him were undercover officers disguised as Arabs. His family was unable to define the area forbidden to Abu-Tir, who holds the second slot on Hamas’ party list”.   This YNet report is published here.

The “deportation” order dates back to before his arrest in the spring of 2006. Last month, Abu Tir and three other Hamas-affiliated elected members of the PLC were ordered to surrender their Jerusalem residency cards to the Israeli police.

Maybe if he had stayed at home, in his village, he would have been left alone?

If he is brought before a court on Thursday, maybe he will at least be able to get clarification of where he’s allowed to be — and where he is banned.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Abu Tir was taken into custody “near the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood”, the Jerusalem Post reported — a Jewish neighborhood he would have to pass through if moving toward downtown Jerusalem, or even to Ramallah or Bethlehem.

Ma’an reported that “Former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs for the Palestinian Authority Khalid Abu Arafa [another of the four East Jerusalem Hamas-affiliated politicians facing “deportation”] confirmed the arrest, which he said was carried out near the official’s Sur Baher home, in a neighborhood of East Jerusalem”.

Both reports could be true. There is just a fine line dividing Jerusalem from the West Bank in that, and many other areas of the greatly expanded “Greater Municipal Jerusalem” unilaterally created by Israel after its conquest in the June 1967 war, annexing West Bank villages to East Jerusalem and binding them together with former West Jerusalem to make the new “metropolitan”, but still divided, area.

According to Ma’an, “deportation orders okayed by an Israeli court last week … would see Abu Tier stripped of his Jerusalem residency card and prohibited from accessing the city”.

UPDATE: Al-Jazeera English reported that the Israeli Police spokesman for Jerusalem, Shmulik Ben-Ruby, said: “We arrested him; he has broken the law and stayed within the borders of the state of Israel … He has been detained and taken for questioning”. The Al-Jazeera report added that “Israel had sought to strip Abu Teir, Khaled Abu Arafeh, a former minister for Jerusalem affairs, and Ahmad Atoun and Mohammed Totah, both MPs, of their Israeli-issued identity cards. The men have appealed the decision and Abu Teir was due to appear in court on Thursday … Atoun said he was driving with Abu Teir in the Sur Baher neighbourhood, where the latter lives, when they were pulled over by police asking to see their IDs. ‘We told them we do not have IDs. They arrested Muhammad Abu-Teir and told me I have two days remaining to stay in Jerusalem’, he told the Reuters news agency … Israel has said they are being expelled because they are members of Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union consider a ‘terrorist’ organisation, although it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Abu Teir was among dozens of Hamas politicians from Jerusalem and the West Bank that Israel rounded up after the polls. He was freed in May, but was then told his Israeli-issued ID was being revoked”. This is posted here.

Ma’an added, in its report, that “An Israeli police source said Abu Tier was not part of a deal made by Palestinian Authority officials from Ramallah. [n.b. – I think that must mean that Abu Tir did not agree to signs any deal renouncing any affiliation with Hamas, which is the stated Israeli condition for rescinding the “deportation” orders]. President Mahmoud Abbas met with the four lawmakers on Friday, and following the meeting sources within the PA said a deal had been struck to ensure the lawmakers were not expelled from their native Jerusalem. A second police source said Abu Tier would go before the Jerusalem court and be deported to the West Bank or Gaza”. The Ma’an report is published here.

This would be a violation of human rights, and international humanitarian law.

This is happening as U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell is back in town — he met Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other Israeli officials today, and is due in Ramallah on Thursday for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Muqata’a. [Maybe Abu Tir will already be in Ramallah to meet him...]

Oh, deportation is also a violation of the Road Map.

Will Mitchell speak out against this violation of the Road Map? Or, because it means demanding these four East Jerusalem politicians to renounce their Hamas affiliation, will Mitchell say this is a felicitous fulfillment [however heavy-handed] of the Quartet position concerning Hamas — who have not yet obliged the international community by complying with certain stated conditions?