Israel raids home of PA’s Jerusalem governor under house arrest

Israeli occupation forces this morning raided the home of the Palestinian governor of the occupied city of Jerusalem this morning, Wafa has reported. Adnan Ghaith is currently detained under open-ended house arrest having been sentenced by the Israel Magistrate’s Court in West Jerusalem with bail set at 25,000 shekels ($7,500).

He was charged with violating an army order banning him from entering the occupied West Bank. The court did not specify a time period for the house arrest, which will continue until his trial, which could see the PA official sent to prison.

According to the governor’s aide Marouf Al-Rifai, the Israeli occupation authorities have been targeting Ghaith since 2000, when he was placed under house arrest for more than two years. This was followed by an eighteen-month prison sentence.

Al-Rifai added that the Israeli court’s decisions are politically motivated. “These decisions have been 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 by Israel 35 times since he assumed his duties as Jerusalem governor in August 2018.

READ: Four injured as Israeli police raid Jerusalem Governor’s house