44 years of detention... Jerusalemite MP Mohammad Abu Teir is back behind bars.
The Israeli occupation authorities transferred Jerusalemite MP Mohammad Abu Teir to administrative detention for four months on Tuesday, under an order issued by the military commander of the army in the West Bank. The detention period runs from December 1, 2025, to March 23, 2026.
A long political career… 44 years behind bars
Abu Teir (75 years old) is one of the most prominent Jerusalemite political figures and one of the most frequently arrested Palestinian prisoners, having spent nearly 44 years in Israeli prisons over various periods (most of his life in prison).
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem stated that MP Abu Teir was first arrested in 1974 at age 23 and spent 11 years in prison before being released in the Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange deal in 1985.
He was subsequently arrested multiple times and served sentences of 7, 4, 5, and 3 years, as well as several months, in addition to repeated administrative detentions.
Jerusalemite MPs: Between arrests and deportations
Since 2006, Jerusalemite members of parliament have been directly targeted by the occupation's policies, which include arrest, revoking residency permits, and deportation.
According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, in 2006, the Israeli Minister of the Interior decided to revoke the residency permits of MPs Mohammad Abu Teir, Ahmad Attoun, and Mohammad Totah, as well as former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh, citing “disloyalty to the State of Israel” after their participation in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
The four MPs were subsequently subjected to multiple arrests before receiving deportation orders from Jerusalem in 2010. By the end of that year, the deportations were carried out. MP Abu Teir was tried on charges of “illegal residency in Jerusalem” and sentenced to five months in prison. He was then released at the Betonia checkpoint west of Ramallah, only to be forcibly deported from his hometown and city.
