Israeli occupation forces detained Palestinian Legislative Council member Muhammad Abu Teir on July 2 after a raid on his home in the Ramallah neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, reported Ahrar centre for prisoners’ rights.
Abu Teir, a member of the PLC representing the Change and Reform Bloc elected in 2006, has been repeatedly detained by occupation forces, often without charge or trial. He was arrested in 2006 after his election and imprisoned for four years. Upon his release in 2010, Abu Teir, a Jerusalemite Palestinian, was stripped of his Jerusalem ID and exiled from Jerusalem to the West Bank.
He was again seized and held under administrative detention for six months as he and three other Palestinian legislators refused to accept their forcible deportation from their land. Israel’s illegal actions against the elected Palestinian officials in occupied Jerusalem led to the expulsion of Abu Teir along with Jerusalem legislators Ahmad Attoun, Mohammad Totah, and former Jerusalem Minister, Khaled Abu Arafa. They were kidnapped at their protest tend in front of the Red Cross in Jerusalem.
In September 2011, he was once again seized by occupation forces and held without charge or trial for one year, and released in September 2012. He has served a total of over 30 years in Israeli prisons.
