Israel shuts down Palestinian research center, arrests director

‘Israeli forces have shut down a Palestinian research center in east Jerusalem al-Quds and nabbed its director, a prominent cartographer, over allegations of working for the Palestinian security apparatus.
The office of the Mapping and Geographic Information Systems Department of the Arab Studies Society in east Jerusalem al-Quds was closed on Tuesday for six months, an Israeli police statement said.
Israeli officials accused the director of the research center, Khalil Tafakji, of cooperating with the Palestinian Authority to monitor the sale of land by Palestinians to Israeli Jews.
Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Tafakji’s activities were “part of the Palestinian Authority’s plan to undermine our sovereignty in Jerusalem and terrorize Arabs selling real estate to Jews in the city.”
“I’ll continue to act assertively to prevent Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem,” he added. Under the Palestinian law, sale of land to Israeli settlers is punishable by death.’
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