Palestinian security sources said that the seven, aged 23 to 60, were arrested in the neighborhoods of Ras Al-Amoud, Jabal Al-Mukaber, Sour Baher, Silwan and Al-Tour.
The sources said that the Israeli security forces "thoroughly searched their houses before arresting them." According to the sources, the detainees were transferred to Israeli intelligence for questioning.
The sources said that the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court extended the detainees' remand for 9 days at the Israeli prosecution's request. Saleh Ayyoub, a Palestinian lawyer representing the seven detainees, said that the Israeli move is part of its efforts "to end the official Palestinian presence in Jerusalem."
Control over Jerusalem, which Israel usurped during the June 1967 war, has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are seeking to set up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the Israel claims the city is its eternal capital.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who served as foreign minister at the time of the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, had dispatched a letter to his Norwegian counterpart, Johan Jorgen Holst, stating Israel's recognition of the importance of Palestinian institutions in the city and its commitment to protect them. The letter was appended to the Oslo II agreements.
But former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the closure of the PLO's institutions in East Jerusalem, chief among them Orient House, in 2001, following a suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in the city, where 15 Israelis were killed.
Since then, Israel has balked at requests to allow these institutions to resume functioning. Indeed, Israel has viewed the closure of these bodies as one of its significant achievements from the intifada period.
Sharon's government stated that the Palestinian Authority's status in Jerusalem is a matter to be discussed as part of final status talks, not beforehand.
On March 2009, Israel prevented the cultural festivals in the city sponsored by the PA on the occasion of "Jerusalem Capital of Arab Culture 2009."
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would ask in the stage of proximity talks with Israel that PA operations be renewed in Jerusalem's Orient House and in the city's Chamber of Trade and Commerce.
Abbas said in an interview published in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam that the proximity will resume immediately once approved by the Arab League and the PLO's Executive Committee.
Israeli media sources said Tuesday that the talks are likely to start on Wednesday, and Netanyahu has decided to head Israel's negotiation team.
Peace talks between the two sides have stopped in 2008, and efforts to revive the negotiations failed as the PA stresses that Israel has to stop building settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem.