Jerusalem Police Chief Doron Yadid has banned radical Sheikh Issam Amira from the Temple Mount for six months for inciting to violence at the holy site in the capital's Old City.
Amira praised the terrorist who beheaded a French teacher for discussing caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad with his class in a weekly sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in October.
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Amira has a long history of inciting violence during his sermons at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which have included praise for the Islamic State group, encouragement of honor killings, and urging holy war against the Jews. He is a Palestinian resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher, where tens of thousands of residents are known to identify with the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir movement (the Islamic Liberation party). The movement preaches for the establishment of a global Muslim caliphate with its capital in Jerusalem. It shares a similar ideology to that of the Islamic State and al-Qaida, and has been outlawed in a number of European and Arab states.
In 2016, then-Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan presented the cabinet with a proposal to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir. The material given to the ministers included examples from all over the world of how Hizb ut-Tahrir was transitioning to terrorism. It included many quotes from extremist, inciting sermons preaching by the movement's people in Jerusalem. But the Shin Bet security agency opposed outlawing the group, arguing that in Israel, the group was not making the move toward violence and terrorism, and it should be allowed to operate openly to avoid it going underground, which would make it harder for the security establishment to keep tabs on its activities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who originally supported Erdan's position, eventually sided with the Shin Bet.
Amira, the most prominent spokesman for the group in east Jerusalem in recent years, has in the past spoken about "enemies who believe in more than one god" in his sermons, and offered them three options: to convert to Islam, pay a jizya poll tax, or "for us to seek Allah's help in fighting them."
Maor Tzemach, chairman of the Lach, Yerushalayim ["For You, Jerusalem"] group that promotes Israeli sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem, on Sunday called on Public Security Minister Amir Ohana to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir.
"This is not the first time the movement's leaders have made statements in the spirit of ISIS," he said, noting a report in Israel Hayom last week that cited "horrific remarks by clerics who identify with the movement and its path, in the spirit of the Islamic State group."
In a statement, right-wing group Im Tirzu called Amira "a radical figure who engages in gross violations of the law. With his presence on the Temple Mount, he leads wild incitement against Israel's citizens and the free world in general. We expect the sheikh to be prosecuted for his inflammatory remarks."
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