Israel Arrests Palestinian Lawmaker Khalida Jarrar

The Israeli military arrested Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar today, Tuesday, in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, accusing her of being a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the army and her husband. Ghassan Jarrar stated that soldiers "arrested my wife Khalida" after storming the family home in Ramallah and "breaking the door at five in the morning." Ghassan Jarrar added, "I woke up to punches and blows from Israeli soldiers inside our bedroom... They put a gun barrel in my face and took me to a room with two soldiers, while she was taken to another room with a female soldier. She managed to change her clothes and they took her ID and mobile phone." Khalida Jarrar, 60, is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has been inactive since 2007. She was previously arrested in October 2019, with the charges against her including holding a leadership position in the Popular Front. She was detained following the killing of a 17-year-old Israeli girl in an attack in the occupied West Bank, which the Israeli army attributed to the Popular Front. Jarrar was released in September 2021 after serving a two-year prison sentence in an Israeli jail. The Popular Front issued a statement today saying: "The actions of the Zionist occupation in launching widespread arrests among the leadership and cadres of the Front in the West Bank this morning represent a retaliatory approach against our people and their leaders who adopt clear and principled positions." The statement noted that this is "a desperate and failed attempt to drain the West Bank of any national or political mobilization against the occupation in light of its abject failure to stifle the burgeoning resistance in the West Bank."