Palestinian cultural leader, wife arrested by Israel for allegedly funding terrorism

Israeli police arrested two prominent Palestinian cultural leaders on Wednesday at their home in east Jerusalem on suspicion of "funding terrorism," police and a defense lawyer said.

Rania Elias, who heads the Yabous Cultural Center and her husband Suhail Khoury, Director General of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, were detained at their home in Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood.

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The Yabous center and the conservatory were also raided by police and Israeli tax investigators, with documents confiscated.

The Palestine Liberation Organization condemned the arrests and raids as part of "Israel's violent and systematic campaign against Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem."

According to Elias's lawyer Nasir Odeh, the couple was "detained on charges of financing terrorist organizations."

But he stressed that Israel's broad anti-terrorism laws include a wide range of offenses, including accepting money from organizations that the Jewish state has labeled as "terrorist."

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that police, with tax authorities, detained "three suspects... in connection with tax evasion and fraud", without mentioning the individuals by name.

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It confirmed the searches "at two organizations that were run in east Jerusalem claiming that they were involved in Palestinian culture."

Rosenfeld said the individuals were being questioned and the investigation was ongoing.

His statement makes no mention of terror-related offenses.

But documents sent to AFP by a conservatory official, presented by police at the time of the search, reference "suspicion of money laundering (and) funding terror."

The Yabous Cultural Center in east Jerusalem was established in the mid-1990s with a mandate to celebrate Palestinian culture and Arab heritage in the city.