(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Israel banned the northern branch of the country's main Islamist organisation yesterday, accusing it of having instigated violence at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem that sparked weeks of Palestinian unrest.
The ban comes as Israel tries on several fronts to stop the knife, gun and car-ramming attacks, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly declaring that he will pursue those he accused of incitement.
However, some questioned whether the ban would further stoke tensions and also harm legitimate political debate.
Mohamed Barakeh, the head of an Arab Israeli umbrella organisation, accused Netanyahu of taking advantage of anti-Islamist sentiment in the Western world following the Paris attacks to crack down on the group.
The branch of the Islamic Movement, based largely in northern Israel, rejects the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and boycotts elections on the grounds that they give legitimacy to the institutions of the Jewish state.
It has been behind a campaign alleging that the Al Aqsa mosque compound is "in danger", stoking fears that Israel plans to change rules governing the site, which Netanyahu has repeatedly denied.
Early yesterday, security forces raided offices of the movement and 17 associated organisations in Arab communities, police said, seizing cash, documents and computers.
Raed Salah, head of the organisation, and two other officials were summoned to a police station in the northern city
of Haifa for questioning.
"All these measures taken by the Israeli establishment are unjust and unacceptable," Salah said in a statement, calling it "blatant injustice".
In announcing the ban, a government statement said that "any person who belongs to this organisation or who provides services to it" would be committing a criminal offence.
It accused the group of incitement "based on the lie that 'The Al Aqsa Mosque is in danger'," adding that the group shared "an extremist ideology" with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
Netanyahu said it "incites violence against innocent people".
"It has close ties with the Hamas terrorist organisation and it seeks to subvert the state in order to establish an Islamic caliphate in its place."
Barakeh said Israel is "exploiting the situation in the region and the world to escalate its repressive and authoritarian attacks against the Arab people in the country".
His organisation called for a general strike over the ban for tomorrow. Arab Israelis - Palestinians and their descendants who remained after Israel was created in 1948 - make up some 17.5% of the population.
Others questioned whether the move could harm legitimate political debate.
"The sense is that this could be a slippery slope," said Ofer Zalzberg, senior analyst with the Middle East programme at the International Crisis Group think tank.
The Al Aqsa compound is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray there to avoid provoking tensions.
Clashes broke out at the site over several days in September. Palestinian youths threw stones and firebombs while barricading themselves inside the mosque and Israeli police responded with stun grenades and teargas.
Strict security measures, including limits on who was allowed to enter, eventually halted those clashes, but a new wave of violence that began in October has seen Palestinians target Israelis elsewhere with knife, gun and car-ramming attacks.
The violence has killed 12 Israelis and 83 on the Palestinian side, one of them an Arab Israeli. Many of the Palestinians killed were alleged attackers, while others were shot dead during clashes with Israeli forces.
The attackers have mainly been young Palestinians who appear to be acting on their own, frustrated with Israel's occupation, a frozen peace process and the leadership of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose calls for peaceful resistance they have ignored.
Other measures Israel has pursued in recent days have included controversial demolitions of homes of suspected attackers, which have sparked clashes, such as on Monday when Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank.
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