Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in IsraelHamed Abu Daabas, the leader of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel
The movement was established and led by Abdullah Nimar Darwish from 1971 to 1991, when he was replaced by Ibrahim Sarsur. In 1996 the movement decided to participate in the Israeli parliamentary elections for the first time in history. The decision was controversial. Opponents of the participation, based in Umm el-Fahm, branched off and were named the "Northern Branch" while the supporters, based in Kfar Qasim, were named the "Southern Branch".[2] The Southern Branch is considered more moderate, and the Northern Branch more radical.[3][4] The Northern Branch was banned by the Israeli government in November 2015 due to alleged ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
During the 1948 Palestine war, the movement cooperated with the Arab Higher Committee, much like the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which cooperated with the Egyptian military. As a result, it suffered a major setback following the war as all of its institutions in the newly formed Jewish state were shut down. During the period of martial law on Israeli Arabs between 1949 and 1966, the movement was suppressed. The institutions that remained in the West Bank were put under the control of Jordanian authorities, who controlled the West Bank. Though a mild recovery took place in the Gaza Strip during the 1950s under Egyptian rule, there too its influence steadily declined until 1967.[6]
The Six-Day War in 1967 caused renewed Palestinian support, both for the Palestine Liberation Organization, which had transformed from a puppet organization to a militant movement, and for Islamic Palestinian movements, among them the Islamic Movement in Israel. The newly created contact between Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs in the territories occupied in 1967, in which the movement had managed to remain somewhat organized, also contributed to this resurgence. As part of the new contracts, members of the Islamic Movement in Israel were sent to study in religious institutions in the occupied territories.[7] At the same time, the government of Saudi Arabia began to allow Muslim citizens of Israel to perform the Hajj to Mecca (all other holders of Israeli passports are barred from entry into that country).
Establishment to split
In 1971, the Islamic Movement in Israel was founded by Abdullah Nimar Darwish after he had completed his religious studies in Nablus.[8] During the 1970s the movement largely focused on establishing welfare services for the Muslim community parallel to those of the state.[9] Among its activities were provision of computers to schools, the establishment of an Islamic football league, marriage arrangement, charity and more.
Parallel to this charity work, several of the heads of the movement, led by Darwish, established an organization called Osrat al-Jihad ("The Families of Jihad"), with the goal of establishing "an Arab Islamic state in Palestine". The heads of the organization were arrested in 1981 due to allegations that they "... stockpiled weapons, burned fields, and murdered an Arab in Um el-Fahm whom they suspected of collaborating with Israel" and as a result many members (including its leader, Darwish) served sentences of between a few months to four years in prison.[10] In prison, the members decided to continue their work under Israeli law.[11]
During the 1980s, the movement experienced a rapid increase in support.[7]
With the outbreak of the First Intifada, the movement established the 'Islamic Relief Committee', whose purpose was to assist the needy in the occupied territories, particularly those harmed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations.
In 1989, the movement decided to participate in elections for several Arab localities, in which it won control of six city councils and made substantial gains in others. The most significant victory was achieved by Sheikh Raed Salah in Umm al-Fahm, which subsequently became the center of the movement.
The Oslo I Accord caused a split in the movement whereby the northern branch opposed the agreement (similarly to the position of Hamas), and the southern branch supported the agreement. In 1994, the activity of the movement was felt in the Jewish public when Salah attempted to mediate between Israel and Hamas on the issue of the captured Israeli soldier Nakhshon Waxman.
In 1995, the Israeli Shin Bet closed down the 'Islamic Relief Committee' after it was found that the body had been granting financial assistance to the families of Hamas members. It was quickly reopened under the name 'The Humanitarian Rescue Committee', whose objectives were almost identical. In 1997, the committee was closed a second time (though only for a short period), and subsequently restrictions were placed upon it.
Two separated branches
In 1996, the movement decided to run for the Knesset, following three previous rejections of the idea. The decision cemented the divisions between the northern and southern branches of the movement, the former, led by Raed Salah, arguing that elections should be boycotted. The southern branch, led by Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, ran for elections sometimes together with the Arab Democratic Party or in an Arab Joint List, and sometimes independently under the name United Arab List; in 2021 it joined the Israeli government coalition.
Ahead of Ariel Sharon's visit at the Temple Mount, the movement stirred agitation among Israeli Arabs. After the visit, both branches of the movement continued to incite their followers to violence in order to "protect the mountain." According to the Or Commission, these calls for violence contributed significantly to the heated spirits of the Arab public and caused a severe worsening in the October 2000 events.
In 2002, the 'Humanitarian Rescue Committee' was shut down, and after a short period 'The Organization of the Humanitarian Rescue Committee' was established in its stead. In the same year Eli Yishai, then Interior Minister, decided to close the newspaper of the northern branch, though the decision was never implemented.
In 2003, the heads of the northern branch of the movement were arrested under suspicion of aiding Hamas, but two-thirds were released almost immediately. The remaining suspects were detained, but most were released during 2005 after signing a plea bargain. Both the arrests and the plea bargain stirred opposition from both the left wing and right wing camps of Israeli politics. The main offenses of which those detained were accused were financial offenses such as tax evasion, but also contact with a foreign agent and contact with a terrorist group. Ultimately, only the economic offenses were proved true.
These two events, as well as the history of incitement by the movement, have been defining factors in the group's image among the Jewish public, most of which views it as a terrorist organization, and there have been many calls to ban the movement.
In 2007, in response to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's comments on the Holocaust, the Islamic Movement (southern branch) leader Abdullah Nimr Darwish "slammed" the Holocaust denial. He also said that antisemitic texts in the Muslim world were contrary to the true spirit of Islam. At the same time, he criticized Israel for not supporting a Saudi peace initiative involving Hamas and Fatah.[8]
In 2012, the Murabitat and Mourabitoun were founded by the Northern Branch after fear arose that the status quo at the Temple Mount would be changed by Israel.
Banning of the Northern Branch
On September 9, 2015, Israel banned both the Murabitat and the Mourabitoun stating they were a source of incitement and violence. Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement that they were the "main cause in the creation of tension and violence on the Temple Mount (al Aqsa compound) specifically and Jerusalem in general."[12][13]
In November 2015, the Israeli Security Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outlawed the Northern Branch, based on evidence gathered by the Israel Police and the Israeli secret police, Shin Bet, which allegedly showed that the movement had close connections with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The organization's suspected ties with Hamas were a major catalyst for the decision; the northern branch received funding from Hamas-affiliated groups, and collaborated with Hamas in its institutional activities.[citation needed]
The chief of Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen, objected to the Cabinet's decision to outlaw the Northern Branch. According to him, there was no evidence linking it to terror attacks and the decision would be seen as a declaration of war on Israel's Muslim community and an assault on the political rights of its Palestinian minority. Banning the movement would, according to Cohen, do "more harm than good".[14]
As a consequence of the decision to outlaw the Northern Branch, police raided more than a dozen of its offices, seized computers, files, and funds, and questioned several members, including Salah and his deputy. The Israeli government also froze the northern branch's bank accounts and ordered 17 organizations affiliated with the branch to close.[15]
Israeli law professor Aeyal Gross, writing for the left-wing newspaper Haaretz, claimed that the outlawing criminalized thousands of citizens. Anyone who acted on the Northern Branch's behalf, held a job in it, attended one of its meetings or possessed one of its books, periodicals or fliers or any other publication could be prosecuted and sentenced up to ten years in prison.[14]
Foiled bombing attack
On December 27, 2016, Shin Bet revealed that it had indicted two men suspected for planning a bombing attack in retribution for the outlawing of the Northern Branch. A third man was indicted in 2017. Shin Bet claimed that they were plotting to attack Israeli soldiers at three possible locations in the Negev, Dimona, Arad, or the Nevatim Airbase.[16][17][18][19][20]
Fatah, formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, is the chairman of Fatah.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas, is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist political organisation with a military wing called the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades. It has governed the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007.
The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties.
Islamic Association of Palestine was an organization convicted of providing material support for terrorism in the United States for Hamas. The organization was established in 1981 and has been defunct since 2004. It described itself as "a not-for-profit, public-awareness, educational, political, social, and civic, national grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a just, comprehensive, and eternal solution to the cause of Palestine and suffrages of the Palestinians." For a time it also used the name American Muslim Society (AMS) and operated as the American Middle Eastern League for Palestine (AMEL).
Umm al-Fahm is a city located 20 kilometres northwest of Jenin in the Haifa District of Israel. In 2022 its population was 58,665, nearly all of whom are Arab citizens of Israel. The city is situated on the Umm al-Fahm mountain ridge, the highest point of which is Mount Iskander, overlooking Wadi Ara. Umm al-Fahm is the social, cultural and economic center for residents of the Wadi Ara and Triangle regions.
Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.
Sheikh Raed Salah Abu Shakra is a Palestinian religious leader from Umm al-Fahm, Israel. He is the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Salah was elected mayor of his town Umm al-Falm, an Israeli-Arab city bordering the Green Line, three times. As a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, he came to prominence for his defense of the holy sites and his participation on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish boat that was stormed by Israeli navy as it attempted to break the siege of Gaza in May 2010.
Husayni is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem, which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali.
Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish was the founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
In 2009, clashes between Muslim Palestinians and Israeli police erupted on September 27, 2009, and continued to late October. Violence spread through East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, and included throwing of Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli security forces and civilians. Israeli police responded with arrests of rioters and sporadic age-based restriction of access to the Temple Mount. Several dozen rioters, police and Israeli civilians have been injured.
Mosab Hassan Yousef is an ex–Palestinian militant who defected to Israel in 1997, thereafter working as an Israeli spy for the Shin Bet until he moved to the United States in 2007. His father is Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of Hamas. A New York Times bestselling author, he is known for his outspoken criticisms of Hamas and Islam and has been accused of Islamophobia at university campus talks and online.
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The 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign was a coordinated effort by 13 Palestinian militant groups, led by Islamist group Hamas, to derail peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The campaign consisted of attacks against Israelis in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel in which, according to a Hamas declaration in early September, "all options are open". The participating groups also included Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and an unnamed splinter group of Fatah. Some Israeli and Palestinian officials and analysts familiar with Hamas believe that the true target of the campaign is the Palestinian Authority, which is led by Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
Salah Hamouri is a French-Palestinian lawyer and field researcher for the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. His wife – who is French – has been barred since January 2016 from entering Israel or the Israeli-occupied West Bank to visit him.
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) is a not-for-profit press monitoring organisation and lobbying group that emerged in mid 2009. MEMO is largely focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but writes about other issues in the Middle East as well. MEMO is pro-Palestinian in orientation and supports Islamist causes. MEMO is regarded as an outlet for the Muslim Brotherhood and its website strongly promotes pro-Hamas related content.
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine. Originally formed in the early 20th century in opposition to Zionism, Palestinian nationalism later internationalized and attached itself to other ideologies; it has thus rejected the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the government of Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinian nationalists often draw upon broader political traditions in their ideology, such as Arab socialism and ethnic nationalism in the context of Muslim religious nationalism. Related beliefs have shaped the government of Palestine and continue to do so.
Murabitat is an Islamist political movement of Muslim women, funded by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. The group organises classes at Al-Aqsa on Arabic literacy and qira'at and tajweed in Qur'anic recitation.
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On 14 July 2017, three Arab-Israeli men left the Temple Mount, and opened fire on Israeli border police officers stationed near the Gate of the Tribes which is close to the Lions' Gate. Two Israeli border police officers were killed and two more were injured in the attack. All three attackers were shot and killed by Israeli police after fleeing back into the complex.
↑ Nachman Tal (February 2000). "The Islamic Movement in Israel". Strategic Assessment. 2 (4). Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel-Aviv University. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-03. paragraph 4 accessed 28 July 2024
↑ Dr. Dan Rabinowitz, Religious Revival, Fundamentalism and Religious Radicalism amongst the Muslim Citizens of Israel
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