In total, 17 regional branches were ordered closed, including offices in Umm al-Fahm, Jaffa, Nazareth, Kfar Kana, Turan, Beersheba and Rahat.
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In yesterday’s announcement, Israel’s security cabinet said indictments were issued for Salah and an unknown number of other leaders in the Islamic Movement of Northern Israel. The document added that “the northern branch established a salaried group of activists (called the Morabitat) aimed at initiating provocations on the Temple Mount”. The umbrella organization was set to hold an emergency meeting over the ban. The movements maintain close, secret ties.
Since 2001, the Islamic Movement has bused tens of thousands of supporters to the mosque compound every year to strengthen the Muslim presence. It is the latest of several jail terms he has served.
An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given final approval for the construction of more than 400 new homes in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
“My government will continue to act as necessary against incitement and terrorism”, he stated.
European Parliament Member Marijana Petir of Croatia reiterated Martusciello’s sentiments, saying, “We will not boycott Israeli goods”. “We have nothing against Israel’s Muslim citizens who enjoy full and equal rights”. In 1996, it split into northern and southern branches.
A police spokeswoman said Salah was summoned to police headquarters to be notified formally of the edict but was not under arrest.
The United States also harshly criticized the decision.
Following the decision, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon signed the relevant order.
The policy was suspended by the Israeli Government in 2005 after a military committee deemed it ineffective as a deterrent.
Salah said the Israeli decision had been made in the aftermath of Kerry-Netanyahu talks.
The Islamic Movement and a few Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to take control of the compound and change the status quo. “We remember this from the South African days, the whites said that the first ones to be fired are the blacks”, he said.
“With Israel, just as with France, America’s condemnation and total rejection of terror is unequivocal and rooted in the kinship of our open and democratic societies”, he said. The two movements share an extremist ideology and a common goal – the destruction of the State of Israel.
Struggling to deal with the violence and protests, Israeli stepped up security and implemented a harsh crackdown on Palestinians.
Israel on Tuesday announced that it outlawed the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, blaming the group for inciting Arab Israelis to violence amid a two month-long outburst of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The government immediately launched a media campaign implying that Salah’s movement had colluded with “terrorism” against Israel.
According to the government statement, the Israeli organization is “a sister movement of the Hamas terrorist organization”.
The group’s leader, radical cleric Raed Salah, said his party would fight the measure and continue its mission.
He also allegedly said Muslims’ “finest moment” would be to become “martyrs” protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
But Netanyahu – who was accused of racism when he complained on election day last March that his left-wing opponents were getting Arabs to vote “in droves” – is under public pressure to take strong action to stem the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since the 2014 Gaza war.
Since Oct 1, 14 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.
Whereas Israeli authorities have grudgingly shrugged off the group’s rhetoric in the past, they are now less forgiving of anything that might encourage the kind of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks seen in recent weeks.
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The banning indicates a shift in approach for Netanyahu who previously sought to quell tensions that began in October through increased policing. “This is exactly what the Islamic Movement [is] doing”.
