Israeli police briefly detained the chief Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, and questioned him on Tuesday about a newspaper interview in which he was quoted as condoning suicide bombings, police said.
Sabri was released after being held for about three hours at a police compound in central Jerusalem. In other events, Palestinian security officials said that two Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces late on Monday in the West Bank, and Israeli police said that at least four people were lightly wounded on Tuesday morning when a bus came under attack in northern Israel.
Sabri (63) whose post as mufti of Jerusalem is influential but largely ceremonial, has often made comments that have outraged Israelis and has praised militants fighting Israel. Sabri was questioned over a June 1 interview in the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam. He reportedly said that ”Palestinians have the legitimate right to fight Zionist occupation,” said police representative Shmuel Ben-Ruby.
”In addition, the mufti claimed that there is no religious law against suicide actions, rather they are legitimate acts of self defence,” Ben-Ruby added. Sabri, who was appointed to his post in 1994 by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was detained for several hours by Israeli police in September 2001 and questioned about comments he made in a sermon and a meeting he held with Lebanese guerrilla leaders.
Last year, Sabri described the Palestinian uprising against Israel as a ”holy war” and said that suicide bombers and other Muslims killed in the conflict were ”martyrs.”
”The issue is decided,” Sabri was quoted as saying when asked about suicide bombings against Israeli targets. ”Muslims believe in the Day of Judgment and that dying as a martyr has its reward — going to heaven — and that a martyr is alive in the eyes of God.”
Israel says many Muslim clerics and political leaders have encouraged suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel. Sabri’s son Obedah said police came to the family home in east Jerusalem around 9am. (0700 GMT) Tuesday and took his father. Sabri was released around noon.
Sabri regularly delivers sermons during Friday prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque, part of the Noble Sanctuary compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, which is the third holiest site in Islam. The compound, dating to the 7th century, was built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples, which is the holiest site in Judaism. Sabri has repeatedly disputed Jewish links to the site that Jews call the Temple Mount.
In January 2001, the German magazine Die Welt quoted Sabri as saying: ”In the whole city, there is not one stone that refers back to Jewish history.” He also was quoted as saying that Jewish immigrants to Israel ”should go back to where they came from.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian security officials said the two people killed Monday night in the West Bank town of Jenin were leading members of the militant group Islamic Jihad. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. In Israel, a few kilometres to the north of Jenin, a bus was attacked near the town of Beit Shean on Tuesday and at least four people were injured, police and rescue workers said. Police representative Gil Kleiman said shots were fired at a bus and that four people suffered minor wounds.
In political developments, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set out for Washington early on Tuesday, hoping to hear about US plans to block a possible Iraqi missile attack on Israel and to answer US complaints that his government is not doing enough to ease restrictions on the Palestinians.
Sharon is to meet US President George Bush at the White House on Wednesday.
Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Tuesday that Israeli troops could pull out of a second West Bank town, Hebron, by the end of the week if the situation there remains calm. The United States has been pressing Israel to pull out of at least one of the six West Bank cities it still holds after taking over seven cities in June. It had already pulled out of Bethlehem, but maintains a military presence and often tight curfews on the rest.
The US Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, sent a letter to Sharon over the weekend calling for the troop withdrawals, the easing of restrictions on the movements of Palestinians and the handover of hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues that Israel has withheld.
Ben-Eliezer said Israel and the Palestinians were holding ”deep discussions” to work out an agreement for a withdrawal Hebron. ”I hope that about the weekend this will happen, if the conditions are right,” Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio. ”If the situation permits us to leave Hebron, I will of course encourage this.” – Sapa-AP