[News] Israel’s trial of Sheikh Sabri signals a sweeping assault on Jerusalem’s religious leadership

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Jerusalem <https://english.palinfo.com/category/jerusalem/> | News 
<https://english.palinfo.com/category/news/>


  Israel’s trial of Sheikh Sabri signals a sweeping assault on
  Jerusalem’s religious leadership

Tuesday 18-November-2025

// <https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/11/18/351877/#>
// <https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/11/18/351877/#>
// <https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/11/18/351877/#>
// <https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/11/18/351877/#>

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)

Israeli authorities began a new procedural hearing Tuesday for Sheikh 
Ekrima Sabri, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of the Higher 
Islamic Council in Jerusalem, in what his legal team describes as a 
politically motivated prosecution aimed at silencing one of the city’s 
most influential religious voices.

The Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem convened to read the 
indictment, which includes three allegations: condolence speeches 
delivered by Sheikh Sabri in 2022 in Shuafat Refugee Camp in Jerusalem 
and in Jenin Refugee Camp for the slain Palestinians Udai Tamimi and 
Raed Hazem, and a farewell sermon at Al-Aqsa Mosque mourning Palestinian 
leader Ismail Haneyya.

Sheikh Sabri’s lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said the charges fall within a 
“systematic political persecution,” noting that the hearing is 
procedural rather than substantive.

Zabarqa told Anadolu that the defense team will request additional 
evidence to refute the indictment and will seek another court date to 
formally respond. He said the case “extends Israel’s racist political 
pursuit of Sheikh Sabri and other Jerusalemite figures to restrict their 
role and limit their public influence.”

He added that Sheikh Sabri has faced years of punitive measures, 
including travel bans, repeated bans from entering or preaching at 
Al-Aqsa, demolition orders targeting the building where he lived in one 
of its apartments, and restrictions on his contact with other 
Palestinian figures.

Zabarqa noted that the Sheikh has also been the target of an “extreme 
right-wing incitement campaign calling openly for his assassination,” 
yet Israeli authorities have taken no action despite evidence submitted 
to prosecutors.

Before entering the courtroom, Sheikh Sabri said he is facing threats 
intended to intimidate him. “They told me, ‘Your fate will be like Ahmed 
Yassin,’” he said, expressing defiance in the face of an Israeli 
campaign he described as an attempt to silence all defenders of Al-Aqsa 
amid an aggressive push to reshape Jerusalem’s identity under Israel’s 
minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Sheikh Sabri said Israeli authorities are “deliberately mixing Islamic 
religious concepts with political interpretations that distort their 
meaning.” He added, “The expressions we use are part of our religious 
duty, and Israeli authorities have no right to interpret them according 
to their political interests.”

He stressed that the charges and threats “have no legal basis but are 
attempts to muzzle voices defending Al-Aqsa.”

The Council of Scholars and Preachers in Jerusalem warned that the trial 
represents “a dangerous assault on religious authority in Jerusalem,” 
emphasizing that targeting Sheikh Sabri means targeting all the 
Palestinian religious leadership. The council said threats against him 
now include “explicit calls for murder,” warning of the consequences of 
regional and international silence.

Dr. Ali al-Qaradaghi, secretary-general of the International Union of 
Muslim Scholars, condemned the trial as an attempt to “break the spirit” 
of a figure who has represented “the voice of truth and freedom in 
Jerusalem for decades,” arguing that Israel is attempting to reshape the 
city’s religious landscape by undermining its scholars.

Journalist Khadija Benguena described the trial as “an unprecedented and 
historic attempt to erase Jerusalem’s religious identity” by targeting 
one of the most senior Islamic scholars in the world, who has preached 
from Al-Aqsa for more than fifty years.

The prosecution of Sheikh Ekrima Sabri marks a dangerous escalation in 
Israel’s policy toward Palestinian religious institutions. It is not 
merely a legal case but an attempt to intimidate an entire religious 
establishment and restrict freedom of expression in Jerusalem.

As pressure intensifies, Al-Aqsa Mosque remains at the heart of the 
confrontation, and figures like Sheikh Sabri embody the last line of 
defense protecting the Palestinian and Islamic identity of the holy 
city. The broader Palestinian and Islamic world now faces a decisive 
moment: silence toward this case may have lasting consequences for the 
ability of scholars to protect Jerusalem’s sacred sites.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20251118/b1a6f876/attachment.htm>