By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“We consider this decision arbitrary and retaliatory against the Sheikh for his national and Islamic role in resisting the Judaization attempts of Al-Quds and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Israel has banned Sheikh Akram Sabri, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from entering the mosque compound for six months.

Sabri’s attorney, Khaled Zabarqa, said an Israeli court issued the decision on Thursday, following his detention and release last Friday.

“Sheikh Sabri was banned from entering the mosque for six months,” Zabarqa said in a statement.

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The elderly sheikh, who is also the head of the Islamic Authority in Jerusalem, was arrested on August 2 by Israeli forces during a raid on his home in the al-Sawana neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem and taken to the Moscovia detention center in the city.

His arrest took place just hours after delivered the Friday sermon in which he mourned the assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

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The Resistance movement Hamas has condemned “in the strongest terms the decision by Israel to ban Sheikh Sabri from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque for six months.

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“We consider this decision arbitrary and retaliatory against the Sheikh for his national and Islamic role in resisting the Judaization attempts of Al-Quds and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We call on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to take action against the occupation’s Judaization measures and to provide means of protection for Islamic and Christian holy sites, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it stressed.

A staunch critic of the decades-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, Sabri. had previously been detained by Israeli forces and was barred from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for months.

He had previously held the position of mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories from 1994 to 2006.

(PC, Al-Mayadeen)