RAMALLAH — Israeli police on Wednesday arrested two leaders of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement “for disturbing peace.” Zahi Njeidat, spokesman for the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, said that Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, and Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha, the chairman of Al-Aqsa Foundation catering for holy sites in Palestine were arrested in occupied Jerusalem and were transferred to a detention facility. Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police spokesman, said that the two were arrested for “inciting public disorder and intention to promote violent rioting” at the Temple Mount Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound). Rosenfeld said that the two were arrested after Palestinian stone throwers attacked Jerusalem policemen near the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound. Two policemen were injured after being hit by rocks, the spokesman said. He added that police dispersed the Palestinians using pepper spray and arrested three youths. Njeidat said that the clashes erupted after Israeli police allowed Jewish worshippers to enter the Muslim's third holiest shrine. The development comes two week after the police arrested the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, on suspicions of incitement. The arrest was made after Salah allegedly accused Israel and the Israeli occupation of trying to torch Al-Aqsa Mosque and the wider Arab world as a whole, during a speech in during a speech in Kafr Qara in northern Israel. He was released after he agreed to keep a distance of 30 km from Jerusalem for 180 days and will make a deposit of 50,000 Israeli shekel ($14,100). Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it in 1980, and has since built settlements there that are home to some 300,000 Jewish settlers. Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
