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Israeli forces re-arrest exiled Jerusalem deputy, Mohammed Abu Tair

February 20, 2014 at 3:34 pm

Hamas MP Mohammed Abu Tair (C) in the West Bank city of Ramallah 18 February 2006 [PEDRO UGARTE/AFP via Getty Images]

At dawn on Tuesday (06.09.2011), forces of the Israeli occupation re-arrested the exiled Jerusalem deputy, Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tair following a raid on his residence in the central West Bank city of Ramallah. He was taken to an undisclosed location.

Sheikh Abu Tair has spent over 30 years of his life detained in Israeli prisons and on 20 May 2011 was exiled from his home city of Jerusalem to the West Bank after being stripped of his Jerusalemite identity and prohibited from returning home.


The other Jerusalemite deputies currently under threat of expulsion have expressed their fears that their colleague, Sheikh Abu Tair, will be dealt with as an illegal citizen residing in the West Bank, especially after his expulsion from the City of Jerusalem and the fact that he has been stripped of all personal identification and documentation. This is in accordance with Israel’s law 1651 which has been used previously to exile a number of citizens to Gaza.

Following the arrest of Sheikh Abu Tair, the number of Palestinian deputies currently being detained in Israeli prisons has now risen to 20, 18 of whom belong to the Change and Reform Bloc.