The Israeli occupation police today detained Najeh Bkeirat, deputy director of Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf Department, at his home in Sur Baher neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem as a prelude to exile him from the city, according to local sources. Bkeirat, who has been pursued and harassed by the Israeli police since 2003 and banned 30 times from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, where he works, because of his activities in the Muslim holy place, said after the order was issued last week to exile him from his city, that he will stay in his home in Jerusalem and will not leave it on his own will. Another senior Muslim official, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, former Mufti of Jerusalem and a preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, was also handed yesterday by the Israeli police during a raid at his Jerusalem home an order banning him from travel abroad for six months. Israel uses banishment from Jerusalem or restrictions against many of its Palestinian political and religious figures in order to crush any opposition to its plans in the occupied city and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA