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JERUSALEM, February 14, 2013 (WAFA) – Israeli police Thursday arrested a Palestinian resident of the southern East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa believed related to his call for a strike in the schools on Thursday to protest opening of a road in the Arab neighborhood, according to a family member.

Abdul Karim Lafi, an architect and chairman of the parents committee in Beit Safafa, was arrested under the pretext of calling for a strike in Beit Safafa schools to protest the construction of road number 4 that will take 250 dunums of private land the West Jerusalem municipality wants to build to link illegal settlements with the center of Jerusalem.

Local residents have been holding regular protests at the municipality against the road that will take a large part of the Arab neighborhood’s land, which residents rather use to build badly needed housing.

An Israeli court this week rejected the residents’ lawsuit to stop construction of the road.

Lafi, who has led protests against Israeli censorship of Palestinian textbooks in East Jerusalem, was taken to a police station for interrogation, said the relative, Mousa Lafi.

M.H./M.S.