Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel outlaws, shuts offices of Arab reconciliation body led by radical cleric

2025-01-29

[IsraelTimes] Security forces briefly arrest Sheikh Raed Salah, accuse him of using committees that mediate disputes between families as cover to continue his Islamist political activities

Security forces shuttered the offices of reconciliation committees in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm on Tuesday, citing the body’s Islamist ties.

Police and Shin Bet raided the committees’ offices and arrested their head, Sheikh Raed Salah,

... alternately Raed Saleh, he fancies the title "Sheikh of Al Aqsa" as suitable for the head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, the militant arm of the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood based in Umm al-Fahm in the Galilee. The Southern Branch went in for Israeli politics as part of the Obama-era Arab Joint List project, though their goals are the same. Sheikh Saleh’s role is to cycle in and out of Israeli prisons for cause...

but released him later in the day.

The "peace spreading" committees were an initiative of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, a leading umbrella organization among Israel’s Arab minority. Established by Salah in 2017, the committees operate with the stated goal of curbing violence in Arab society by mediating between feuding families.

Given that the violence has been increasing, either they’re really bad at it or they’re aiding and abetting for reasons of their own.

The raid came in the wake of a decision by Defense Minister Israel Katz to outlaw the reconciliation program, citing its links to the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which Salah heads.

Israel declared the Northern Branch illegal in 2015 over repeated incitement to terrorism.

Two years later, police arrested Salah for sermons he gave lauding ~~bandidos~~ bully boyz from Umm al-Fahm who killed two coppers on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, and in 2020 he was convicted of incitement to terror.

After being released from prison in 2021, Salah expanded the program’s reach to other towns, amid surging violence in Arab communities.

Over the past two years, the number of Arab murder victims reached nearly double that of 2021, jumping from 126 in 2021, to 244 in 2023. This past year, the number stood at 230, according to data from the Abraham Initiatives group.

The program established a uniform set of guidelines for local reconciliation committees in resolving disputes between families, which often lead to violence.

Police alleged that the network acts as a cover for Saleh to continue his Islamist political activities, which are "in step with the worldview of the Moslem Brüderbund and disseminate the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement’s anti-Israel agenda."

Ra’am party chairman Mansour Abbas

...political head of the political arm of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, now known as the Ra’am OPrty. Like Muslim Brotherhood parties elsewhere, they will ride the train down the iron rails of democratic politics and charity until the train reaches their station at the formation of the Caliphate, avoiding as much as possible all that messy bloodshed until afterward. It’s also important to check his public statements against what he says in private in Arabic, just in case taqqiya is involved...

criticized law enforcement’s move as inappropriate, asserting the reconciliation committees do not belong to any particular ideology or political movement while warning the ban could harm efforts to curb ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful crime.

"I would expect the Defense Ministry, minister of national security and attorney general to use their power against the criminal organizations dominating Arab citizens, and to take a tough stance against criminal organizations, rather than reconciliation committees," he told the Haaretz daily.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Interior minister bars firebrand Arab Israeli cleric from leaving country

2022-02-15

[IsraelTimes] Security officials reportedly advised Shaked to prevent Sheikh Raed Salah from traveling abroad amid concerns he will continue anti-Israel activity.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on Monday signed an order prohibiting bully boy Moslem holy man Sheikh Raed Salah

... alternately Raed Saleh, he fancies the title "Sheikh of Al Aqsa" as suitable for the head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, the militant arm of the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood based in Umm al-Fahm in the Galilee. Sheikh Saleh’s role is to cycle in and out of Israeli prisons for the cause...

from leaving the country.

Security officials had advised Shaked to take the measure in order to stymie Salah’s ability to renew his activities for the Islamic Movement, according to Hebrew media reports.

Salah has long been one of Israel’s most prominent Islamists. He led the Islamic Movement’s radical Northern Branch until it was banned by the government in 2015 for its alleged terror ties. Israeli authorities charged that the Northern Branch had helped incite a wave of stabbing attacks and car-rammings against Israelis.

Salah was arrested two years later and eventually convicted of incitement to terror, as well as supporting a banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization — in this case, his own movement.

He was released in December last year after serving 17 months and given a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm in the north of the country.

Salah was incarcerated for praising a 2017 attack by three Arab Israeli ~~bandidos~~ gunnies at the holy Temple Mount site in Jerusalem’s Old City; the assailants shot full of holes two Druze coppers before being killed by Israeli forces.

The hilltop is Judaism’s holiest place, as the site of both Biblical Temples, as well as the third-holiest sanctuary of Islam. The incident — and an Israeli decision to intensify security on the hilltop — precipitated days of intense festivities between Israeli forces and Paleostinians. Several Paleostinians were killed, both while committing attacks and during festivities with Israeli troops.

According to the verdict against him, Salah gave a sermon in the midst of the crisis in which he praised the "deaders of al-Aqsa."

Salah gave a similar speech at a symbolic funeral for the three button men in Umm al-Fahm, and a would-be stabber from the city who was arrested in Tel Aviv days later indicated he had been inspired by Salah’s words, according to the conviction.

Israel’s Islamic Movement was founded in the early 1970s by Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, a preacher from Kafr Qasim.

In the 1990s, the Islamists split over the negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians that led to the Oslo Accords. Darwish’s Southern faction embraced the grinding of the peace processor, eventually entering the Knesset as the Ra’am faction. The party is now a member of the ruling coalition.

The more radical Salah and his disciples — the so-called Northern Branch — staunchly opposed the Oslo Accords and Israeli parliamentary politics alike. The division was rarely publicly acknowledged, with both parties continuing to call themselves simply "the Islamic Movement."

Salah had previously been convicted on a number of occasions of terror charges and in 2017 was released from prison after serving a nine-month sentence for incitement to violence and racism.

Nonetheless, his 2020 conviction was slammed by Arab Israeli parliamentarians as an attempt to suppress free speech.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Islamic Movement elects new spiritual leader seen as close to Ra’am’s MK Abbas

2022-01-26

[IsraelTimes] Safwat Freij, a resident of Kafr Qasim, widely seen as agreeing with pragmatic line espoused by coalition party

The Southern Islamic Movement

... the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, based in Kafr Qasim near Tel Aviv. The Northern Branch is the militant wing, based in Umm al Fahm in the Galilee, which coordinates with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Erdogan’s Turkey. An estimated 10% of Israel’s Arabs are connected to either the Northern or Southern Branch, if only through their charities...

has elected a new spiritual leader over the weekend, replacing Sheikh Hamad Abu Daabes, who led the faction for 12 years.

The Islamic Movement said on Saturday night that Sheikh Safwat Freij had been elected to the organization’s top spot. Observers widely saw Freij’s election as good news for Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas, as the sheikh is considered to be close to Abbas and to share his worldview.

Freij, from the central Arab city of Kafr Qasim, previously served as the Islamic Movement’s deputy chief and ran a charitable organization on the faction’s behalf. Freij’s father was killed during a notorious massacre committed by Israeli police in the city during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Founded in the 1980s, the Islamic Movement was thrust into the spotlight over the past year when its political branch, the Islamist Ra’am party, joined the coalition government.

The movement is informally divided between its more radical "northern" branch, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, and the "southern" leadership, until recently led by Daabes, which is considered more moderate. Israel banned the northern branch for alleged terror ties in 2015, and Salah recently finished serving over a year in prison for incitement.

In contrast to some of his firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
predecessors, Abbas has adopted a pragmatic approach.

In remarks that stirred controversy among Arab Israelis, Abbas said in late November that Arabs should strategically cease contesting Israel’s Jewish character.

"Israel was born a Jewish state, that was the decision of the people, and the question is not what is the identity of the state — it was born this way and it will remain this way," Abbas said at the time.

Freij defeated his main opponent, Sheikh Mohammad Salameh Hassan, by a vote of 293-214. Hassan was considered to represent a more traditional approach for the Islamic Movement, referring to Israel’s government as an "occupation government" and calling all Israelis "settlers."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

No. 2 at northern branch of the Islamic Movement returns to al-Aqsa

2017-11-17

[Ynet] Sheikh Kamal Khatib allowed back on Temple Mount after being barred for 3 years, sends out a warning to Israel: 'You thought you could keep the people from the al-Aqsa Mosque, but you saw what happened last July when you tried to put metal detectors and cameras at the gates of the mosque.'

Trouble to follow, followed by another arrest, trial, conviction, jailing, and barring. The man and his movement are scorpions, as predictable as the sun rising.

Sheikh Kamal Khatib, the deputy leader of the outlawed northern branch of the Islamic Movement,

... the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The terror-supporting northern branch is based in the town of Umm al-Fahm...

returned to the al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday after being barred from the Temple Mount for three years and used the opportunity to issue a threat to Israel.

Khatib was barred from the complex after inciting violence in media interviews and in sermons at mosques.

He is considered the most prominent figure in the movement since its leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, was tossed in the slammer
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
until the end of legal proceedings against him as he too faces incitement charges.

"I am returning to the al-Aqsa Mosque after three years in which I was prevented from coming to the mosque and to Jerusalem," he said in a video filmed at the complex. "This decision prevented the 'landlord' from entering to his home. The Israeli occupier is preventing us from entering the al-Aqsa mosque."

Khatib continued with a threat, "I want to tell Israel: Your decision to ban the Islamic Movement is unjust. You thought you could keep the people from the al-Aqsa Mosque, but you saw what happened last July when you tried to put metal detectors and cameras at the gates of the mosque."

Israel added security measures at the Temple Mount after three Israeli Arab faceless myrmidons from Umm al-Fahm shot up a police patrol from the complex, killing two Israeli coppers, Ha'il Satawi and Kamil Shnaan. The additional security measures led to rioting in east Jerusalem and across the country.

Before being barred from al-Aqsa, Khatib made similar warnings, saying, "The continuous harm done to the al-Aqsa Mosque and opening it to Jews has led to great anger. If talk of dividing the mosque area continues, the situation would explode not just in Jerusalem but in the entire region and the whole world. The Paleostinian people will not remain silent. (Prime ministers) Rabin and Sharon are gone, but the al-Aqsa Mosque remains. (Prime Minister) Netanyahu will also go, and the mosque will remain."

Maor Tzemach, founder of the movement "For You, Jerusalem," condemned the decision to allow Khatib to return to the Temple Mount. "This decision constitutes the crossing of a red line in the fight against incitement. Khatib is among the leaders of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, incites against the State of Israel on a regular basis and organized a support rally for Sheikh Raed Salah in Umm al-Fahm," he said.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel extends detention of leader of Islamic Movement’s northern branch

2017-08-18

[Iran Press TV] An Israeli court has extended the detention of a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel for allegedly inciting violence last month and involvement in an outlawed organization.

The Rishon Lezion magistrate court on Thursday extended to August 21 the remand of Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, after he was arrested by Israeli police force in the Mahajina neighborhood of Umm al-Fahm city, located 20 kilometers northwest of Jenin, on Tuesday.

Link

Olde Tyme Religion

'You're prosecuting the Quran'

2017-08-16

The leader of the Islamic Movement's outlawed northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, was arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of inciting terrorism. The Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court extended Salah's remand by three days.

Salah was arrested for remarks delivered in a speech last month at the funeral of three Israeli Arab gunmen who killed two police officers at the Temple Mount. In the speech, he praised the attackers and exhorted others to follow their example.

Salah told reporters in the courtroom that his arrest was part of a political witch hunt against him.

"I told the investigators I teach at mosques, and I told them (my remarks) were Islamic insights we got from the Sunni Quran," Salah said during his court hearing.

"You are not prosecuting me, you are prosecuting the Quran.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Police say top Islamic cleric again held for incitement to terror

2017-08-16

[IsraelTimes] Sheikh Raed Salah taken into custody in overnight raid on his home after making public statements, some to media, allegedly supporting terror attacks.

Islamic holy man Raed Salah,

...the firebrand leader known as "the Sheikh of Al Aqsa" who spends considerably more time in Israeli prisons for incitement than living in comfortable domesticity at home. His name is occasionally transliterated as Raed Saleh...

who heads the banned Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement,

...the Moslem Brotherhood in Israel. They do all the usual social welfare stuff as well as pass millions in donations from Turkey and the UK to Hamas. The "moderate" Southern Branch runs for election as part of the Obama-era project, the Arab Joint List; the Galilee-based, banned Northern Branch uses stronger methods, including the Mourabitoun, the cadre of Israeli Arabs who harass Jews on the Temple Mount. Their founder died recently; he was loudly mourned as a staunch "Zionist", which suits Southern Branch marketing.

was incarcerated

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Local Islamic leaders arrested for inciting violence in Jaffa

2015-11-17

[Jpost] Police said that the suspects incited the atmosphere at recent protests in the city

A leader of the council of the Islamic Movement in Jaffa and the imam of a Jaffa mosque are among four suspects tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
by police Monday on suspicion of inciting violence during protests held in the city in recent months in solidarity with the Paleostinians.

One of the protests in early October descended into violence as rioters shut down the main thoroughfare in Jaffa and masked men threw rocks at police and torched dumpsters.

In a statement on Monday, police said the suspects "incited the atmosphere at recent protests in Jaffa, leading to the throwing of rocks at motorists while endangering bystanders and damaging the public order."

Police also arrested two minors, aged 16, who they say took part in the demonstrations.

All four suspects will be brought for remand extensions in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

The October 6 violence in Jaffa, in which a handful of coppers were lightly hurt and six protesters arrested for allegedly clashing with police, was some of the worst rioting seen in the city in years. Also in October, violent rioting took place intermittently in cities in the Shfela region, including Ramle and Lod.

Shfela subdistrict police said on Monday they had arrested two minors suspected of throwing rocks at motorists on Route 431 on a number of occasions last month.

Israel outlaws northern branch of Islamic Movement

[Jpost] Israel has resolved to outlaw a domestic Islamist movement with ties to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and the Egyptian Moslem Brüderbund, according to a blurb distributed early Tuesday morning by the Prime Minister's Office.

The government says that it has declared the northern branch of the Islamic Movement "an illegal organization."

"The practical significance of this decision is that any entity or individual belonging to the group from hereon out and any individual who grants this organization services or operates under its auspices will have violated a criminal statute and is subject to imprisonment," the government statement read.

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement is led by Sheikh Raed Salah, who has been convicted in court of numerous subversive activities, including funding Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, contacting an Iranian agent, assaulting a police officer, and leading a violent protest.

In recent months, Salah has been at the forefront of agitating against Israeli rule over Temple Mount. His rallies frequently invoke the mantra of "Al-Aksa is in danger." read.

According to a police statement, authorities began distributing cease and desist notices to 17 non-government organizations and charities with ties to the northern branch.

These notices were handed out to offices in areas with large Arab populations, including Umm el-Fahm, Jaffa, Nazareth, Kfar Kana, Tora'an, Beersheba, and Rahat.

Investigators also conducted searches and confiscated equipment in 13 of the 17 offices. Security forces left with computers, documents, and other material. The authorities also froze bank accounts which are alleged to have facilitated the activities of the movement, resulting in harm done to national security.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Powerful Islamist cleric Salah loses appeal against jail term for incitement

2015-10-28

[IsraelTimes] Head of Northern Branch of Islamic Movement to start 11-month stint next month; vows to continue campaign for Al-Aqsa

The head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, must serve 11 months of jail time for incitement to violence and racism, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Tuesday after rejecting an appeal by the high-profile Islamist holy man for the second time.

Salah, who was convicted in connection with a sermon he delivered in 2007 in Jerusalem, will begin serving his sentence in November, the Ynet news site reported.

The sentencing comes as Israel's government has said it is seeking to outlaw Salah's group, blaming it for helping to goad attackers during a wave of violence that has seen near daily stabbings and other attacks.

The holy man originally lost an appeal over an eight-month sentence he received last year, and was sentenced in March to 11 months in prison when racism charges were added to the case. He appealed again, but the court ruled against him Tuesday.

During the 2007 sermon, Salah expressed hope that "the streets of Jerusalem be purified with the blood of the innocent, who shed it in order to separate from their souls the soldiers of the Israel occupation, also in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." He further said that "our finest moment will be when we meet Allah as deaders in Al-Aqsa."

A crowd of Paleostinian men confronted Border Police troops at the end of that sermon, wounding three of them.

Salah responded to the court decision by vowing to continue agitating over the Temple Mount.

"Jerusalem is under occupation and we won't give up on the value of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. With spirit and blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa," he said, according to the Walla news website.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee also slammed the decision as a move "against the entire Arab population."

"Salah was sentenced over a legitimate political statement in defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," said Mohammed Barakeh, the head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee and a former Hadash MK.

Salah, 57, has been banned from the Temple Mount by court order, and has spent the past decade in and out of Israeli jails for incitement, assaulting a police officer, and contact with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,. In 2012, he was held in detention in the UK for 21 days as he appealed a deportation order issued by the Home Office, an appeal he eventually won.

The Temple Mount compound, which has been at the center of the recent spike in unrest, houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and was the site of two ancient Jewish temples. The site is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. Israel has repeatedly denied persistent Paleostinian allegations to the effect that it seeks to change the arrangements at the site in order to allow Jews to pray there.

Last week, in a Facebook post, Salah once again accused Israel of scheming to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to "build an imaginary temple on its ruins." He urged the Jordanian government to revoke articles in the 1994 peace treaty with Israel that allow Jews to visit Temple Mount, "even if this brings about the annulment of the peace treaty."

"The first article of section nine of this agreement states that each side grants the other freedom to enter places of religious and historic importance. Based on that text, the Israeli occupation claims that it has tacit agreement to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, claiming that Al-Aqsa Mosque is the so-called Temple, which bears religious and historic significance," wrote Salah.

Israel's General Security Service has repeatedly accused Salah's movement of collaborating with Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the Justice Ministry to find evidence proving that Salah's Islamic Movement is inciting Muslims to commit violent attacks against Israelis as part of his longstanding media campaign "Al-Aqsa is in danger."

At a presser on October 8, Netanyahu singled out the Islamic Movement as the main instigator of violence in Israel and the West Bank, as a wave of stabbings and stone throwing swept the country.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Is Islamic Movement orchestrating terror attacks?

2015-10-12

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials and others in the media have been pointing their finger at the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel as being connected to the recent wave of violence.

A representative of the Shin Bet (Israel's Security Agency) told the cabinet on Sunday that the Islamic Movement and Hamas were principally responsible for the incitement that has led to the current wave of terror, and that both groups rejected Israel's existence. In an interview on Army Radio on Sunday, the head of the police operations chief Ahraon Aksol, said that “these are not spontaneous events, the northern branch is directing them.”

Of course they're not spontaneous. They're doing exactly what their Iranian masters are telling them to do. Syria, West Bank, western Iraq, Sinai and Yemen are all aflame because Iran wants it that way. They have Rooshun air support in Syria. They have Obama twaddling about gun control. Life is good for the Mad Mullahs™ right now...

Unlike the more pragmatic southern branch, the northern branch does not participate in national elections.

There has been reports for some time that Netanyahu’s government was considering banning the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, a move that is unlikely to be carried out in any significant way even if it passes muster with the Supreme Court. Fully disbanding the movement would require a massive security operation on par with what Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has undertaken against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – imprisoning its members, preventing their supporters from preaching in mosques, and so forth.

And even after months of security operations and killings of members of the Muslim Brotherhood the groups is still alive and kicking.

The Islamic Movement in Israel is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt.

“Security officials, politicians, and the media have blamed the Islamic Movement for spearheading events and the prime minister declared for the umpteenth time that he intended to outlaw the Islamic Movement,” Nohad Ali, a sociologist from the University of Haifa and Western Galilee College who is an expert on Israeli-Arab affairs, told The Jerusalem Post.

Ali added that when they speak about the organization, they are referring to the Movement’s northern branch led by Sheikh Raed Salah and his deputy Sheikh Kamal Khatib. Security forces have prevented them along with other leaders of the movement to visit Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

“Politicians, especially on the right of the political spectrum, are working hard to find who is to blame for the recent riots. Of course, they do not want to blame themselves,” continued Ali.

Netanyahu has accused three groups of inciting violence: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Islamic Movement (also Balad MK Hanin Zoabi). Because Netanyahu does not want to act against Hamas or the PA, argues Ali, he chooses to attack the weakest link: the Islamic Movement.

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement has been at the forefront of espousing the defense of Aqsa Mosque. It has even come to the point where Salah is recognized in the Arab and Islamic world as "the sheikh of al-Aqsa," said Ali.

The Islamic Movement has trained cadres of Muslim men, women, boys and girls known as the Murabitun, who are meant to defend the Aksa Mosque.

“Each of them believes in his heart that Aqsa is in danger. They believe that the Israeli government wants to copy the exercise of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, dividing the complex physically and restricting the amount of time the site is open to Muslims.

Ali asserts that the profile of those using violence are youths or children from more secular households.

“They are not cadres from the Islamic Movement,” said Ali.

The banning of the Islamic Movement would only serve to deteriorate the situation further as the group would call on dozens to protest, he said. Furthermore, the High Court would likely overturn any ban.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Third Palestinian Intifada Looms as Israeli Attacks Continue

2015-09-22

[ALMANAR.LB] Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Occupied Paleostine, expected the outbreak of a 3rd Intifada (Paleostinian uprising) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem if things remain as they are.

"If the Israeli violations continue against Al-Aqsa Mosque, that might lead to a 3rd Intifada in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem," Salah said in an interview with the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

He warned that the Zionist entity is working on the Spatial and Temporal division of Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to deliberate plans.

Of course only God himself can work on the non-spatiotemporal division of the mosque, but the Kingdom of Jordan is responsible for the physical fabric of the thing, not Israel. Israel only refuses to allow the mosque being used as a fort and weapons storage.

"The response on the Arabic and Islamic level lies in putting pressure on the Israeli occupation to stop its arbitrary actions against Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem," Salah said. "We will keep knocking on all doors, to raise the voice of Jerusalem."

Since last Sunday, Zionist occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque almost daily and attacked Moslem worshipers with rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, causing dozens of injuries.

"Let's define Moslem worship as using iron bars, molotov cocktails, and bottle rockets to attack Jews, and see how much fun we can have in Allah's name!"

Salah also welcomed the position of Jordan, which condemned what happened in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, urging it to "take action beyond condemnation and denunciation."

According to international law, Jordan is the official supervisor of Al-Waqf in East Jerusalem because it was the last local authority that oversaw the holy sites before the 1967 Zionist occupation.

And a dreadful job they're doing, to be sure. Though it's not actually an international law thing so much as Israel doesn't want the trouble of being officially in charge of it and them.

Salah said that "the Zionist government took advantage of the current events in the Arab world, especially in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
and Egypt, which keep them busy" and less focused on Paleostine.

He also praised the positions of some Arab and Islamic countries who condemned the Zionist aggressions on Al-Aqsa.

Lots of hot words and attitudinizing signifying, as usual, nothing.

Salah is considered one of the prominent Islamic figures in Paleostine who opposed the Zionist settlement policies and what Paleostinians call the "Judaization" of East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Salah paid a high price for his criticism of the Zionist occupation and has been tossed in the clink
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
and prosecuted. That is why Paleostinians call him "Sheikh Al-Aqsa".

Are we sure that's said admiringly?

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Police close Islamic charities that ‘instigated unrest’ on Temple Mt.

2015-01-13

[IsraelTimes]. Authorities said the charities, which belonged to the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement, were used to undermine Israeli security at the Temple Mount and inflame recent tensions between Arabs and Israel’s security forces.

Paleostinian activists were allegedly paid by the groups to visit the compound on a daily basis, taunt Jewish visitors and otherwise foment unrest at the site, according to Sherlocks from the Shin Bet and anti-corruption police unit Lahav 443.

The closures come after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon banned the charities in December following months of legislative efforts by Israeli politicians to outlaw the radical Islamic Movement northern branch and its affiliates.

A statement issued by the Islamic Movement on Monday confirmed that three of its Nazareth offices had been shut down by Israeli officials.

The Islamic Movement’s northern branch is led by myrmidon Arab-Israeli holy man Sheikh Raed Salah, who has been convicted in Israel on a number of charges, including incitement to violence and funding Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.

Amid the deadly terror attacks in Gay Paree last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman linked the northern branch of the Islamic Movement to terror groups, and urged a tougher stance on the organization and its affiliates.

“Extremist groups, which are distinguishable from terror organizations only by semantics and legal minutiae, must be dealt with preemptively,” the foreign minister said Thursday. “Those who tolerate such movements and organizations in the end pay for this [tolerance] with the blood of many innocents and with a threat to the very democracy that allowed them to function.

“Therefore, we must not dally any longer or allow the continued activities of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement headed by Sheikh Raed Salah.”

Link

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