Israel has outlawed an Islamist group it blames for inciting the country’s Arab citizens and fuelling a two-month wave of deadly violence.
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The Israeli government accuses the group of engaging in “incitement” and trying “to initiate provocations” in Jerusalem, in connection with the site holy to both Jews and Muslims, known as the Temple Mount or the Noble Sanctuary, where the al-Aqsa mosque sits.
The global community opposes Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and the Palestinians claim as their capital.
The government announced early on Tuesday that the security cabinet had approved the measure, which had been widely expected.
In outlawing its most strident Islamist group, Israel risks angering its largely quiescent Arab citizens as it confronts a wave of Palestinian violence powered by religious and political tensions.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Anadolu Agency that Israeli police confiscated documents and computers after searching 17 offices linked to the Islamic Movement across the north.
“All these measures taken by Israel are unjust and unacceptable”, the movement’s leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, wrote in a Facebook post.
In October, Salah was sentenced to 11 months in jail on charges of inciting violence at the mosque compound in a 2007 speech.
In addition, the organization is a sister movement of Hamas, which Israel and the United States label as a terrorist group, and is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Palestinian attacks, mainly stabbings, have killed 14 Israelis, and at least 83 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 51 Israel says were involved in assaults.
The Israeli security cabinet yesterday banned the Islamic Movement, considering it, its leaders, members and institutions outlaws.
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that “in any conceivable peace agreement, these areas remain part of Israel and in no way hinder moving forward in peace.?” According to some observers, the Netanyahu government is taking advantage of the global outrage over the Paris attacks to crackdown on Palestinians. The local news site Yaffa 48-an affiliate of the Islamic Movement-reported Israeli police arrested the group’s Director of External Relations Dr. Joseph Awawdeh from his home in the Galilee.
University of Haifa’s Sammy Smooha said the ban would cause “friction and resistance” while Northwestern University’s Elie Rekhess, a leading expert on Israel’s Arabs, has said the move would lead to “growing unity within the Arab political elites” pulling together the various ideological streams. Arabs comprise 20 per cent of the Israeli population. Yet the violence is continuing with near dailykillings of Palestinians and attacks on Israelis. The World Court says settlements Israel has built there are illegal, a view Israel disputes.
The highly sensitive Al-Aqsa compound, the third-holiest site in Islam after the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, has been the focus of the northern branch’s anger.
Over the past six weeks Palestinians have killed 15 Israelis in attacks, and Israeli forces and civilians have killed more than 110 Palestinians.
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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.
