Israel has outlawed the Ifshaa’ Al-Salam committees as a branch of the proscribed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, the Israel Police, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israeli Defense Ministry said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz signed an order last week banning the committees and confiscating their property, including the freezing of one bank account.
The move came after Katz was presented with conclusive intelligence regarding the committees’ links to NBIM, according to the statement.
Police also arrested Sheikh Raed Salah, a religious leader from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel and the head of the Northern Branch, and shut down the organization’s offices located in the same area.
The Ifshaa’ al-Salam committees were established in 2017 by Salah—just two years after the NBIM was banned—with the ostensible goal of combating violence in Israel’s Arab sector.
However, the committees continued to spread the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist terrorist organization, as well as the anti-Israel worldview of NBIM, according to the statement.
NBIM was outlawed in 2015 for ties with Hamas and illegal operations in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
Salah, in particular, has cast himself as the defender of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem from an alleged Jewish takeover, inciting violence and public disorder with jihadist terminology.
He has been arrested and charged numerous times over the years for inciting to terror and contacting foreign agents, among other offenses.
The committees were established as a “cover” for the continued operation of the NBIM, the joint statement continued.
According to Hebrew-language media, Salah was released from custody after several hours of questioning.
Another association that allegedly financed the committees, named “Mu’assat Al-Silm Al-Ajtma’i Lil-Islah Wal-Tahkim” (Social Peace Foundation for Reform and Arbitration), was also banned and its bank accounts frozen, according to Hebrew media reports.
