Raed Salah, the head of the organisation, said he had been summoned along with two other officials to a police station in the northern city of Haifa, while also denouncing the ban.
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Israel’s government has banned an Islamist party, saying it has been inciting violence among Israeli Arabs over the past two months.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Islamic Movement’s northern branch of leading a “deceitful campaign” that alleged Israel was trying to alter the religious status quo at the Jerusalem site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and to Jews as Temple Mount. “We believe it’s a risky attack not only against the Islamic Movement, but against the Arab minority inside Israel”.
Several Palestinian leaders decried the move, noting its proximity to Friday’s Paris attacks and suggesting it was a way of cracking down on all Arabs living in Israel.
Netanyahu, who has been urging the move as one way to bring down the level of terrorism, issued a statement saying that the ban means that anyone belonging to the organization or providing it any service will be commuting a criminal offense and subject to imprisonment. The group’s property can also be seized, according to a government statement. The decision to ban the group comes amid rising tensions in recent months between Israelis and Palestinians, primarily in Jerusalem and on the West Bank. Israeli politicians have repeatedly called for a ban on the group since the violence erupted in mid-September.
“The Security Cabinet decision was made following a series of in-depth discussions with all relevant legal and security elements; the goal is to stop the risky incitement at home and prevent harm to innocent life. My government will continue to act as necessary against incitement and terrorism; at the same time, we will continue to invest resources for the betterment of Israel’s Arab and Jewish citizens alike”.
Strict Israeli security measures, including limits on who was allowed to enter, eventually halted the clashes at Al-Aqsa, but a new wave of violence that began in October has seen Palestinians target Israelis elsewhere with knife, gun and car-ramming attacks.
Overnight seventeen institutions linked to the Islamic Movement were closed in different areas of Israel said a government statement.
The Jerusalem hilltop compound, holy to both Jews and Muslims, houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and is the third holiest site in Islam.
Still, there has been a sharp increase in visits to the holy site over the years by Jewish activists, who would like to open it to Jewish prayer.
Since 2001, the Islamic Movement has bused tens of thousands of supporters to the mosque compound every year to strengthen the Muslim presence.
Haifa University sociologist and pollster Sammy Smooha said about 42 percent of Israeli Arabs say they support the Islamic Movement.
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In its struggle to contain the violence, Israel has beefed up security across the country, sending hundreds of soldiers to back up police, and setting up checkpoints and concrete barriers in Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, where numerous attackers have come from.
