Jerusalem lawmaker to be deported to Ramallah

An Israeli military court on Tuesday ordered the deportation of a Palestinian lawmaker from Jerusalem to Ramallah, a statement from the Palestinian Legislative Council said. Ahmad Attoun, a Jerusalemite, was detained in front of the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem in September. He had taken shelter in the ICRC building along with another Hamas legislator, Muhammad Abu Teir, and former PA minister Khalid Abu Arafa, after Israeli authorities revoked their Jerusalem residency permits. In a statement issued in June 2010, after Israel ordered the men to leave Jerusalem, the three Hamas men wrote: "We as sons of Jerusalem have never left it before ... we emphasize that we will remain here and never leave it." Hamas-affiliated Attoun was released from an Israeli jail in 2009, along with five other Palestinian lawmakers. He had been held for three years. The ICRC has said it told Israeli authorities that international humanitarian law prohibited the forcible transfer of Palestinian residents from their homes