By Michael Bachner/TPS
Israeli security forces on Thursday raided and shut down several institutions in Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm affiliated with the Islamic Movement in Israel. An administrative order was issued by the Defense Ministry at the recommendation of the Shin Bet.
Israel outlawed the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in November 2015, and recently expanded the closure order to include institutions affiliated with, but not necessarily owned by, the movement. The group calls for replacing Israel with an Islamic caliphate and does not recognize the legitimacy of government institutions.
Targeted institutions include news website Qpress and the ‘Supreme Council in Support of Jerusalem and al-Aqsa.’ Israel has restricted the activities of activists associated with those initiatives, and has frozen bank accounts valued at hundreds of thousands of shekels (at least tens of thousands of US dollars) connected to the institutions.
“These institutions are the ideological successors of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch,” read a statement by the Shin Bet. “Their activities escalate tensions around the Temple Mount and contribute to the frequent riots at the site. This compromises the safety of visitors and harms Israeli sovereignty over the compound.”
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is Judaism’s holiest site, though Jewish access to the site is severely restricted. Muslims, who refer to it as Haram al-Sharif or as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, consider the site the third-holiest.
The Shin Bet said that Qpress recently called on Muslims to ramp up their presence on the Mount in order to clash with security forces and “disrupt order at the site.”
The organization has led a campaign for the last 20 years claiming that ‘al-Aqsa is in danger’, a century old charge that Israel is intending to demolish the 8th Century mosque located on the Mount, as well as the golden Dome of the Rock, the 7th Century shrine at the center of the complex. The Northern Movement sponsored an annual convocation on the issue from 1996-2015, but the 2016 convention was canceled because the movement had been outlawed.