Israel briefly detains Hamas cabinet minister

Israeli border police briefly detained a cabinet minister from Hamas today, the first time Israel took into custody a member of the Hamas government since the Islamic militants took power last week.

Khaled Abu Arafa, minister of Jerusalem affairs, was detained with his bodyguard when he was on his way to Izzariya, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem.

Abu Arafa, who lives in Jerusalem, was to take possession of furniture and office equipment from his predecessor, Ziad Abu Zayyad, a moderate.

Abu Arafa was detained because he is barred from entering the West Bank for security reasons, the army said. He was not interrogated because his intentions were clear, the army added.

Paramilitary police stopped the car at a checkpoint at the entrance to Izzariya, Abu Arafa said. After he refused to leave the car voluntarily, police forced him out, he said.

Abu Arafa said he was taken to a shipping container where he sat for several hours before being moved to a police station in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.

“Nobody asked me even one question. The entire time they treated me roughly,” Abu Arafa said, adding that his hands were cuffed and he was forced to sit on a box when riding in the military vehicle.

“This is an attempt by the Israeli government to topple the new Palestinian government and prevent us from providing services for our people,” Abu Arafa said. “They insist on creating a tense situation … and getting us back to square one. We will continue our work and our duties to our people.”

Israel refuses to have any ties with the new Hamas-led government unless it recognises Israel, accepts past Israeli-Palestinian peace deals and renounces violence.

Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, has refused to accept the demands, which are backed by the international community.

It had appeared that Israel was trying to prevent Abu Arafa from assuming his duties in the ministry office in Izzariya.

Part of Izzariya is in Jerusalem, which is at the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims the entire city as its capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern half for the capital of a future state.

Abu Arafa, a Jerusalem resident born in 1961, has been detained several times by Israel in the past.

Abu Zayyad, the former minister of Jerusalem affairs, said members of Abu Arafa’s entourage informed him of the detention. He said the two were to meet so Abu Zayyad could hand over the supplies that belong to the Palestinian Authority.

The Jerusalem affairs office has been in the West Bank for several years because interim Israeli-Palestinian peace accords bar the Palestinian Authority from opening offices in the disputed city, Abu Zayyad said.