Seven years after Israel made the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement illegal, and a year after members of the faction played a leading role in the incitement that led to riots in mixed cities during Operation Guardian of the Walls, former and present members of the group and groups identified with it, continue to incite against the state and are involved in fanning the flames among Arab Israelis.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
One of the main centers of the group's activity is the Negev, where members played a leading role in the incitement that accompanied the unrest in January. Deputy head Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib called Israel's tree plantings a "continuation of the Nakba," and fiercely attacked Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas for being part of the government.
The leader of the group, Sheikh Raed Salah, who was freed from prison after completing a 16-month sentence for inciting terrorism, has also returned to action, this time in the framework of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel. Salah came to the Negev and declared: "We will live and die on the lands of the Negev. We will build our homes on the lands of the Negev and we will bury our dead in the lands of the Negev."
Al-Khatib, who played a central role in incitement at the Temple Mount a year ago and spoke then about the "Nazi Israelis," also promised that "the Israeli and Zionist occupation will disappear from Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, like the Crusaders disappeared from there." He is in tune with the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, who today is the head of the Supreme Muslim Council, one of the most extremist figures in east Jerusalem, who in the past indirectly supported suicide bombings.
Sabri is also Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's man in east Jerusalem, and the connection between him and the faction is natural, since it once had an "ambassador" in Turkey, Sheikh Munir Abu el-Haija from Shfaram.
Al-Khatib was also in contact with one of the main inciters during the May riots, Sheikh Yosef Elbaz, the former imam of the Great Mosque of Lod, also a member of the Northern Branch, who said: "Israel is not a state of Arab Israelis" and "we must protect the Palestinian land with civil disobedience, gradually and in stages."
'Close to returning to our lands'
The ideology of the Northern Branch remains as it was: opposition to Zionism, non-recognition of the State of Israel's right to exist, and support for and sometimes actively seeking its elimination. Leaders of the faction have visited and still visit terrorists who were freed from jail; murderers and their accessories, as well as those who planned suicide bombings.
Only recently, leaders of the organization and others met with Mahmoud Jabareen from Umm el-Fahm, who in 2018 completed a 35-year sentence for murdering an Arab who was suspected of being a collaborator; and Ziad Jabareen, also from Umm el-Fahm, who 20 years ago drove a terrorist wearing an explosive belt to the area of Karkur and even guided him as to where to blow himself up.
Al-Khatib, a resident of Kafr Kana (where police who came to arrest him in May 2021 were met with a barrage of bullets) is today the most extreme voice in the Northern Branch. He promises that the "Zionist sun will set when the Islamic state's sun rises"; advocates for the implementation of right of return for Palestinians; and promises his listeners that "we are close to returning to our lands." Al-Khatib frequently talks about the future Caliphate, with "its capital Jerusalem" at its center, and declares: "We are sure that the future belongs to Islam… Islam will control this area."
The man who in the past compared Israel to "a louse that nests in the body of the Arab world and sucks its blood" today faces judgement for his part in the May 2021 riots and is accused of identification with a terror organization, incitement and praising of violence, and sympathy towards or encouraging acts of terror. The clearest indictments against him describe his seeming support for Hamas, the 1929 riots (in which more than 133 Jews were murdered), and last April's riots in Jaffa.
At the same time, Salah, who was freed from prison last December, has returned to action. Salah was received like a king in his city Umm al-Fahm by people including Mayor Dr. Samir Mahamid, who last month even took part in a launch event for a book about the city that was commissioned by the municipality and written by Salah.
Filling the water cisterns
The Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and its two daughter organizations, the Murabitun and the Murabitat, were outlawed in 2015. A total of 17 NGOs across Israel that were connected to the organization were subsequently closed and their bank accounts frozen. Security agencies presented the political echelon with evidence that the branch and its offshoots had become an extension of Hamas, inciting and dangerous, and, on the margins, also carrying out attacks.
Among other things, the government was presented with evidence of the connection between the branch and the Murabitoun and Murabitat movements – men and women who, in exchange for a monthly salary, come to the Temple Mount every day to confront and block Jewish visitors – and evidence that members of the group intended to rent a hotel and maybe even to buy a building close to the site from which to manage their inciteful and provocative activities and even host Arab Israelis who would then be available to instigate disturbances on the Temple Mount.
The faction has been the main troublemaker on the Temple Mount over the years: 25 years ago, the movement and Salah rented two large underground mosques on the Temple Mount: the Marwani Mosque at Solomon's Stables in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, and "Ancient Al-Aqsa," underneath the more familiar upper Al-Aqsa. These two mosques were established with blatant contempt for the legal Israeli authorities, who were at the time prevented from enforcing the law at the Temple Mount.
Salah also planned to fill dozens of empty water cisterns on the Temple Mount with water from the Zamzam Well in Mecca. Salah, who calls himself the "Al-Aqsa Sheikh," sought to upgrade his status and the holiness of the site and put it on the same level as Mecca and Medina. Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan succeeded in preventing Salah from carrying out his plans.
Now it's becoming clear that the faction – sometimes nearly in the open and sometimes using aliases, is active once more. An investigation by Israel Hayom reveals that the branch's focus of activities was and remains the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Before being outlawed, it provided transportation, more than once funded by Turkey, for hundreds of thousands of Arab Israelis from the Galilee, the Negev, and the Triangle region outside northern Israel to Friday prayers at Temple Mount mosques.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Now the Al-Aqsa NGO, which is identified with Mansour Abbas's Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement, is taking the lead on this issue. Despite this, Northern Branch members are still active in transporting people to the Temple Mount. They do it in two ways – firstly, through the Qadisiyyah NGO (which is named after the famous battle in which the Muslims defeated the Persians in 636).
The second way is by assimilating into the Southern Branch's transportation enterprise. This past year, police have detained former members of the Northern Branch on suspicion of illegal activities involving Al-Aqsa, but they identified as members of the Southern Branch. Without conclusive evidence, the police were forced to "believe" them and let them go.
Another field in which current or former members of the branch are active is education. The Lavi organization reveals here for the first time a program at the University of Hebron, an institution that is identified with Hamas, in which more than 1,000 Arab Israelis, "the internal Arabs," are enrolled. The program operates on Fridays and Saturdays and its registration offices are in Rahat and Segev Shalom. One of the coordinators who runs the registration offices is Sharif Abu Hani, a teacher and imam at the Al-Hassan Mosque in Rahat, a former member of the Northern Branch, who is responsible for the Faculty of Sharia at the Hebron program.
'Opportunity for the people of occupied Palestine'
Abu Hani, who works to attract Arab Israelis to the program in Hebron, notes in his publicity that the university nurtured Kamal al-Khatib and Raed Salah, and "the best scholars were educated, the preachers and the leaders of our people." The program's Instagram page says that its goal is to "provide an opportunity to residents of occupied Palestine [Arab Israelis] to deepen their connections with their brothers in the West Bank and with their heritage, language and religion, through the study of Arabic and Islamic jurisprudence."
But there is no need to go as far as Hebron University. In Umm al-Fahm itself at least three schools identified with the Northern Branch are active. One is Hajia High School for Girls, whose principal, Nae'l Fawaz Mahanjah, was formerly the head of the Umm al-Fahm chapter of the Northern Branch. Fuaz also runs the Bashaer Elkher Alahalya NGO. He took the children from his school and NGO to the reception marking Salah's release, in which they shouted: "With spirit and blood we will take Palestine back."
Two other schools identified with the branch are the Alahliya elementary and junior high schools. Ayman Suleiman recently posted on his Facebook page a film to mark Salah's release, in which there was reputedly inciteful content, including pictures of disturbances and stone-throwing, as well as a speech in which Salah, who was convicted of terror incitement, preaches attacks for the sake of Al-Aqsa, until the fall of the "Israeli occupation."
The HaKol HaYehudi site, which reported the episode, notes that the film goes on to "praise Salah and for his stay in Israeli prison." The principal of Atid Junior High also took part with his students in the reception for Salah following his release from prison (Lavi complained about this to the Education Ministry and the Israel Police).
Additional evidence of the organization's ongoing activity comes from information collected by Dr. Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Supporters of the Northern Branch continue to print Al-Medina, its newsletter, which occasionally interviews Salah and Al-Khatib, as well as Sheikh Hashem Abdel Rahman, former mayor of Umm al-Faham, and one of the founders of the Islamic Movement prior to its split.
Al-Medinah is even proud of the fact that while Israel has banned the movement's activities, authorities have not managed to reduce its grip on the public or the principles on which it is based – first and foremost, the struggle for the Temple Mount.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Committee for Legal Ruling, a group of Islamic legal scholars, which is also identified with the Northern Branch, continues its activities, led by Sheikh Dr. Mashhor Fuaz.
Salah himself was received with open arms by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, where he has a role as "Head of the Committees of Spreading Peace in Arab Society." Salah is also active in conflict resolution in the Hebron and Nablus areas. He has visited the Hassan Bek Mosque on the Tel Aviv promenade, on the border with Jaffa, as well as the mixed cities and the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb, north of Beersheba.
Salah holds renewal conferences, teaches at mosques, and continues to say that "Al-Aqsa is in danger" ("anyone who makes concessions regarding Al-Aqsa condemns himself to suicide"). Unlike Al-Khatib, Salah is more reluctant to attack Mansour Abbas and Ra'am, and is more careful in his speech.
At the grave of Izzedine al-Qassam
Salah and his supporters continue their dawa activities – communal, social, educational and religious activities – which in several cases have been outlawed by the Israeli courts, as a way of forming an infrastructure for future terrorist acts for groups like Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. A few months ago, supporters in Wadi Ara organized a gathering to commemorate deceased Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, aMuslim Brotherhood member, and even inaugurated a mosque in his name in Kfar Kara.
The faction also renovates old Muslim cemeteries. Recently, for example, they renovated the cemetery in Nesher, where Izzedine al-Qassam, the leader of the murderous gangs who operated in the land at the start of the 20th century (after whom Hamas' military wing is named) is buried.
At the same time, the Trust and Reform Party (Al-wafaa wal-islah) has been active for several years. It also identified with members of the Northern Branch. Milshtein notes that its name is similar to the name that Hamas used when it ran in the Palestinian Authority elections – "Change and Reform."
The Trust and Reform party, which campaigned against Arab Israelis participating recent elections, was founded after the Northern Branch was outlawed. Many of its leaders are from that branch – party chair Sheikh Hasem Abu Leil from Kafr Ein (an encampment close to Nazareth), Salah's former No. 2; and two senior researchers at the Center for Contemporary Studies, a research institute that has operated in Umm al-Fahm since 1988 and is identified with the Northern Branch – Dr. Hassan Tzanallah and Professor Ibrahim Abu Jaber; as well as Shahi Nejeidat, the Northern Branch's former legal counsel.
The state has not stopped the activity described here. Security officials claim that some of them are not illegal, and for others, there isn't enough evidence for them to act. Or they claim it's better to let the activity go on in the open to keep even more dangerous things from taking place underground.
One way or another, it's completely clear that former members of the illegal Northern Branch are back in action without facing any real obstacles.
