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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">Israel
bans Islamic party in crackdown on Palestinian citizens</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/charlotte-silver"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Charlotte Silver</a></span><br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-bans-islamic-party-crackdown-palestinian-citizens">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-bans-islamic-party-crackdown-palestinian-citizens</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-11-17T22:05:21+00:00">17
November 2015</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>In a major escalation of its crackdown on <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinians-israel">Palestinian
citizens</a> in the country, the government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.686521">outlawed</a>
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/northern-branch-islamic-movement-israel">Northern
Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel</a> on Monday.</p>
<p>The draconian measure means that association, membership or
assistance to the party will now be considered a criminal offense.</p>
<p>In July, Israel issued <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/israel-slaps-travel-ban-palestinian-former-mayor">travel
bans</a> on the movement’s leader Sheikh <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/raed-salah">Raed Salah</a>
and two other prominent figures.</p>
<p>Israeli police <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bans-islamist-group-saying-its-inciting-violence/">conducted</a>
overnight raids on the group’s offices, Monday, confiscating
computers and seizing documents and cash.</p>
<p>A total of 17 branches were closed, including in Umm al-Fahm,
Jaffa, Nazareth, Kufr Kana, Bir al-Saba and Rahat, all cities in
present-day Israel with large Palestinian populations.</p>
<p>Police also froze the movement’s bank accounts and the government
may now seize other property.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haneen-zoabi">Haneen
Zoabi</a>, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of
parliament for the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/joint-list">Joint List</a>,
<a
href="http://www.arab48.com/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/2015/11/17/%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%BA%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%87-%D8%B6%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86">said</a>
that the timing of the move, just days after the attacks in Paris,
was no coincidence.</p>
<p>Zoabi accused Netanyahu of exploiting the massacre to paint
Palestinians struggling for their legitimate rights as no
different from the ISIS gunmen and bombers who killed 130 people.</p>
<h2>“Incitement”</h2>
<p>Netanyahu accuses the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement of
“incitement” for focusing on the danger to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa
mosque from Israeli government-backed groups whose <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/destruction-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-israeli-groups-ultimate-goal">ultimate
declared goal</a> is to replace the Islamic holy site with a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/third-temple">Jewish
temple</a>.</p>
<p>Last month, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/isaac-herzog">Isaac
Herzog</a>, leader of the Zionist Union, Israel’s ostensibly
dovish official opposition, <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Herzog-at-opening-Knesset-session-calls-to-outlaw-Islamic-Movement-extremist-Jewish-groups-423729">also
called</a> for the group to be outlawed.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/zionist-union">Zionist
Union</a> <a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/">lauded</a>
the decision and admonished Netanyahu for not doing it sooner.</p>
<p>But two weeks ago, Yoram Cohen, the head of Israel’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/shin-bet">Shin Bet</a>
secret police <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.683671">told
the government</a> he had no evidence linking the group to
terrorism and objected to proposals to outlaw it.</p>
<h2>Pursued by state</h2>
<p>The Islamic Movement in Israel was founded in the 1970s but split
in 1996. While the Northern Branch observes a complete boycott of
Israel’s institutions, the Southern Branch participates in
elections.</p>
<p>Three members of the Southern Branch serve as lawmakers in the
Israeli parliament, as members of the Joint List, an alliance of
Palestinian and Israeli political parties.</p>
<p>The ban on the extra-parliamentary Northern Branch will likely
encourage Israeli politicians <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-moves-outlaw-palestinian-political-parties-knesset/13998">seeking
to outlaw</a> even Arab parties that are represented in
parliament.</p>
<p>The movement’s leader Raed Salah, a former mayor of Umm al-Fahm,
has long been targeted by the Israeli state.</p>
<p>Last month, a court <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-executions-palestinian-teens-must-end-amnesty-says">rejected
Salah’s appeal</a> against an 11-month prison sentence he
received in March 2014.</p>
<p>The conviction was for supposed “<a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/powerful-islamist-cleric-salah-sentenced-to-prison-for-incitement/">incitement
to violence</a>” over a speech he delivered in 2007.</p>
<p>Ahmed Tibi, a member of the Israeli parliament for the Joint Arab
List, <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Islamic-Movement-leader-Raed-Salahs-appeal-rejected-to-serve-11-month-sentence-430185">said
the court</a> had been “influenced by the impassioned public
atmosphere.”</p>
<p>Salah was previously jailed for two years in 2003 after he was
convicted for supporting “terrorism,” over fundraising for
charities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>In an extensive 2007 <a
href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jps.2007.36.2.66?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">interview</a>
with the <em>Journal of Palestine Studies</em>, Salah said, “To
this day I don’t know the real reasons for my arrest and
imprisonment. Maybe it had something to do with our role in
thwarting Israel’s schemes targeting al-Aqsa mosque through our
rehabilitation and restoration works, even though we worked under
the umbrella of the al-Awqaf Committee and the al-Aqsa Mosque
Restoration Committee” – bodies recognized by Israel that manage
the holy site.</p>
<p>Salah also notes that long before his trial in 2003, then-Prime
Minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ariel-sharon">Ariel
Sharon</a> had explicitly called for outlawing the Islamic
Movement.</p>
<p>The ban imposed this week further erodes the distinction between
how Israel treats Palestinians who live under military occupation
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, on the one hand, and the 1.5
million in present-day Israel, on the other, who ostensibly enjoy
more civil and political rights, even if <a
href="http://www.adalah.org/en/law/index">not on a par with Jews</a>.</p>
<h2>Poetic fabrication</h2>
<p>In June 2011, Salah was detained in the UK after interior
minister Theresa May moved to bar him from the country where he
was due to give lectures.</p>
<p>As The Electronic Intifada reported, May’s claim that Salah had
written an anti-Semitic poem was based on <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-anti-semitism-charity-cst-still-spreading-israeli-disinformation-about-raed">fabrications</a>
provided <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/revealed-uk-government-plotted-israel-lobby-ban-salah/10458">by
an Israel lobby group</a>.</p>
<p>Ten months later, a UK court <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/court-victory-raed-salah-deals-blow-uk-anti-terror-policy/11146">overturned
the ban</a>, finding no evidence to support it and completely
vindicating Salah.</p>
<p><em>Ali Abunimah contributed research and translation.</em></p>
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