BFF-53 Israel frees Palestinian minister

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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CONFLICT-JERUSALEM-LEAD

Israel frees Palestinian minister

JERUSALEM, June 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli police Sunday released from
custody the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs after questioning him
over claims he organised activities in the city in violation of Israeli
rules, his lawyer said.

Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs Fadi al-Hadami had been
arrested in his east Jerusalem home early Sunday and taken for questioning,
with a police spokesman saying he had been involved in unspecified
“activities in Jerusalem”.

His lawyer Mohannad Jbara said the arrest was due to recent activities
that have included accompanying Chile’s president during a visit to
Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque complex.

Jbara said Hadami was released Sunday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Hadami was seen alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera
on a tour of the holy site.

This infuriated Israel, which said the tour constituted a violation of
regulations and a breach of understandings reached with Santiago for the head
of state’s visit.

The status of Al-Aqsa, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and located above
the Western Wall, is one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.

It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest for Muslims after
Mecca and Medina, administered by the Muslim Waqf but secured by Israeli
police.

Chile later said Pinera’s visit was private, with Hadami’s presence not
part of official protocol.

Hadami’s arrest also comes after days of violent unrest in Jerusalem.

Overnight Saturday, Israeli police “continued dealing with riots and
disturbances in a number of neighbourhoods when stones were thrown at
officers and fireworks fired at them,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said
in a statement.

Two officers were wounded and six suspects arrested, Rosenfeld said. The
continued unrest follows the shooting of a 20-year-old Palestinian in the
east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya by Israeli police, after he had
allegedly thrown fireworks at them.

The young man, identified as Mohammed Obeid, died of his wounds, the
Palestinian health ministry said.

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

Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the
Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

BSS/AFP/RY/1810 hrs