BICOM

Israeli authorities have ceased all security coordination with Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in the suburbs of East Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Israel’s Kan TV new reported that: “Israel (has) decided to stop security coordination in a formal and complete manner in East Jerusalem areas which are under the administrative control of the [Palestinian] authority,” according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

This move by Israeli officials is reportedly to put pressure on the PA to release Issam Aqel, a Palestinian-US citizen, with an Israeli ID card, arrested by PA police for allegedly selling land to Israeli settlers.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tweeted: “The Pal Authority has been holding US citizen Issam Akel in prison for 2 months. His suspected ‘crime’?  Selling land to a Jew. Akel’s incarceration is antithetical to the values of the US & to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence. We demand his immediate release.”

On Sunday, Israel’s police force placed the PA Governor of the Jerusalem District, Adnan Rit, under house arrest at his home in the Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

According to Rit’s arrest warrant, he is “involved in the detention of Israeli citizens by the PA, which jeopardises Israel and its citizens’ security”.

Israel Defence Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai issued an order prohibiting Rit from having direct or indirect communications with several PA officials, including the head of the PA Intelligence services, Majed Faraj — who leads  Palestinian security coordination with Israel — as well as the head of the Tanzim, Fatah’s militant faction.

Spokesman of the Palestinian security forces, Maj. Gen. Adnan Al-Dumeiri, said the arrest would “not prevent the people in general and Jerusalemites in particular from performing their national, moral and humanitarian duties”.

Lt. Col. (res.) Baruch Yedid, who served in the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit, argued that: “Israel should act against the Palestinian General Intelligence Service head, who followed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s orders to abduct (Akel). Other measures are not effective, since they do not influence the Palestinian intelligence head, nor the PA’s minister for Jerusalem affairs Adnan Husseini, who strongly opposed Akel’s release.”