Israel places PA’s governor in Jerusalem under house arrest

The Israeli Magistrate’s Court in West Jerusalem yesterday sentenced the Palestinian governor of the occupied city of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, to house arrest, Anadolu reported citing the governor’s media adviser.

Marouf Al-Rifai said in a statement that in addition to house arrest, the court imposed a bail of 25,000 shekels ($7,500) on the governor and his family.

Israel Police and intelligence services arrested Ghaith from his home in the town of Silwan in East Jerusalem on Monday on charges of violating an army order banning him from entering the occupied West Bank.

The court has not specified a date for his trial.

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Al-Rifai said Israel has been targeting Ghaith since 2000, when he was placed under house arrest for more than two years, after which he was tried and jailed for over 18 months.

He warned that the Israeli court’s decisions are politically motivated, taken by “the [Israeli] occupation government and implemented through its biased judiciary with the aim of imposing its alleged sovereignty over Jerusalem and targeting the national and historical identity of the city and its people.”

Ghaith has been detained 35 times since he assumed his duties as Jerusalem governor in August 2018.