IDF arrests female Palestinian lawmaker for alleged involvement in terrorism

The lawmaker, Khalida Jarrar, is a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist-Leninist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar (photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinians on Thursday condemned Israel for arresting Khaleda Jarrar, a female member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and senior representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
IDF soldiers arrested Jarrar during a pre-dawn raid on her home in Ramallah for violating an injunction issued last August ordering her to remain in the Jericho area. At least 60 soldiers and security officers raided the house on Al-Ersal Street before taking Jarrar into custody, witnesses said.
Neighbors said the soldiers searched the house for nearly two hours during the raid.
Jarrar, 51, was elected as member of the PLC in January 2006. She is one of three PFLP parliament members. Jarrar’s arrest brings the number of PLC members held in Israeli prison to 16.
In August 2014, the IDF ordered Jarrar to leave her home in Ramallah and move to Jericho. She was told that she would not be permitted to leave the district of Jericho without permission from the IDF commander in the West Bank. Jarrar refused to comply with the order and waged a campaign in protest against the decision to “exile” her to Jericho.
According to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Jarrar is one of the dominant militant forces in the PFLP, and advocates for military resistance against Israel. Jarrar has been involved over the past few months in strengthening the PFLP in the West Bank, the Shin Bet said, including pushing its members to be take part in terror attacks.
The IDF arrested her only after the injunction failed to halt her activities which posed a risk, the Shin Bet said.
Jarrar previously served as director of the Adameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association in Ramallah. She also once worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
The PFLP strongly condemned the arrest, calling it a “desperate attempt to stop her activities and prominent national role in defending the rights of our people.”
Kadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said: “She was arrested in retaliation for challenging the expulsion order to Jericho.”

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Fares accused Israel of “turning its back to all laws.” He noted that the arrest coincided with the International Criminal Court’s decision to accept the Palestinians as formal members of the tribunal. Hamas also strongly condemned the arrest, dubbing it a “Zionist crime.”


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