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Arab MK says Israel’s outlawing of Islamist movement ‘declaration of war’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel recently pledged to expedite the legal process for approving demolitions as part of efforts to curb the recent wave of violence.

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“The move is likely going to serve as a catalyst for growing unity within the Arab political elites in Israel”, pulling together leaders from the various political and ideological streams, said Rekhess, who formerly was a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, heading the Konrad Adenauer program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation in Israel.

News of the decision came a week after Netanyahu held talks in the White House with President Barack Obama in which the right-wing Israeli leader publicly reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.

Another Israeli Arab lawmaker, Haneen Zoabi, suggested the Netanyahu was capitalising on worldwide security jitters after Islamist militants killed 129 people in Paris on Friday – charges the government denied.

Netanyahu contends that the Islamic Movement’s northern section, which unlike its southern branch refuses to recognise Israel’s legitimacy, has encouraged assaults on Israelis.

Jamal Zahalka was among the Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament who called the decision a “declaration of war” against the country’s Palestinian minority. The rest were killed in clashes with security forces.

He also allegedly said Muslims’ “finest moment” would be to become “martyrs” protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

“I am proud to persist as head of the Islamic Movement and will be victorious in its name and victorious in its principles, Jerusalem and the blessed al-Aqsa mosque paramount among them”, Salah said in a statement. The ban sits well with Netanyahu’s far-right partners in a coalition that governs with a one-seat parliamentary majority.

Alon Ben David, Channel 10 TV’s security analyst, said the ban was bound to backfire.

Given Israeli surveillance and prosecution of citizens suspected of abetting the Palestinian attacks, one expert on Israeli Arab opinion also cast doubt on the need for the crackdown.

Both groups were outlawed from the site when tensions boiled over in September.

He said that while 9 percent of his respondents cited the northern Islamic Movement as the group they most identified with, 42.2 percent expressed more generalised support for its ideas and charitable work in an often neglected community.

Arabs make up roughly 20 per cent of Israel’s population, holding citizenship rights but frequently suffering discrimination in jobs, housing and public services. The Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration over almost half a century of Israeli occupation.

Last month, an Israeli court upheld a conviction of the firebrand cleric who leads the Islamic Movement, Raed Salah, and jailed him for 11 months for inciting violence over Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque in 2007.

Abu Arar said that Islamic Movement was not responsible for the recent violence.

“Nowadays words have more meaning than ever”, said security cabinet minister Zev Elkin, accusing the northern branch of “creating an atmosphere of hatred of Israel”.

He and other community leaders noted that the Islamic Movement has not used or called for violence.

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Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the Israeli verdict to outlaw the Islamic movement in the 1948 territory, saying the verdict is an act of racism.

Palestinian driver shows the œAzmeh  application which means traffic jam in Arabic on his mobile phone as he waits in traffic to enter Jerusalem at Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank cit