Israel detains Hamas cabinet minister

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israeli police on Thursday detained a cabinet minister in the Palestinians' new Hamas-led government, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

Khaled Abu Arafa, Minister Of Jerusalem Affairs, was detained along with his bodyguard on his way to Izzariya, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem, where he was to sign off on furniture and office equipment from his predecessor, Ziad Abu Zayyad, a moderate.

Paramilitary police stopped Mr. Abu Arafa's car at a checkpoint at the entrance to Izzariya, said Ahmed Jalajel, a photographer for the Arabic Al-Quds daily, who was in the car with the minister when he was taken into custody.
They asked us for ID, they said, ‘Get out.' He said, ‘I am not getting out.' They opened the car and pushed him out,” Mr. Jalajel said.

“They asked him to sit down on the ground, and then they checked the IDs. They asked him to get into their jeep. He refused, then they pushed him into the jeep,” Mr. Jalajel said, adding that he tried to take a picture but the security forces broke his camera.

Israeli defence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, confirmed Mr. Abu Arafa had been taken into custody."


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060406.w2hamas0406/BNStory/International/home