Khalil Khalil, 25, told his family he was going on the Hajj, a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but instead flew with a friend to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria.
Israel is freezing the construction of 1,500 housing units in the Har Homa neighborhood, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited last week and promised continued building in Jerusalem.
As deputy chief scientist of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, Tarek Abu-Hamed is the highest-ranking Palestinian without Israeli citizenship in an official government post.