Israel arrests Palestinian leader

Israeli police have arrested leader of the Palestinian Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah, blaming him for attending an 'illegal' meeting. 
On Monday, the police raided the gathering in East Jerusalem [al-Quds]'s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and took Salah and his bodyguard away for interrogation, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. 
The Salah-led offshoot of the movement later said that the capture "was made as part of the process of strengthening (Jewish control) over Jerusalem." 
The meeting was held to appoint a committee dealing with the cultural affairs aimed at declaring the city "the capital of Arabic culture for 2009". Tel Aviv has taken strict measures to bar the Palestinian Culture Festival which marks the designations. 
Twenty Palestinians including Hatem Abdel Qader, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority, have been arrested during police' suppression of the celebration. Police has also blocked the roads to the al-Aqsa mosque to prevent Palestinians from entering the compound and has seized banners emblazoned with celebratory slogans. 
Alongside vast expanses of the Arab territories, Israel occupied West al-Quds during a six-day war in 1967.