Muslim preacher detained on suspicion of incitement

Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 17:38 On Wednesday, October 29, 2014 Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the executive director of the Haliba organization for Jewish freedom on the Temple Mount, was shot and very seriously injured by a Muslim assassin who claimed that R. Glick had “defiled Al-Aqsa”. Approximately one month later, on November 28, 2014, a Muslim preacher by the name “Sheik Omar Abu Sara’a” and known as “The Al-Aqsa Preacher” gave an inflammatory sermon in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in which he incited to murder Jews. See a video clip with MEMRI’s translation here. In December 2014, on behalf of Rabbi Glick, Honenu attorney Hur Uriel Nizri filed a complaint with the chief inspector of the Merchav David (Old City District) Police in Jerusalem in which he demanded that an investigation be opened against the sheikh due to his incitement.
“My client was critically wounded when a terrorist assassin shot him,” wrote Nizri in the complaint filed with the chief inspector of the Merchav David (Old City District) Police in Jerusalem. “His medical condition is still not simple and he is still wheelchair-bound. However my client, who experienced such a serious injury, cannot show apathy in the face of the above mentioned incitement [the inflammatory sermon]. As someone who personally experienced the results of incitement against Jews in general and in particular concerning the subject of the Temple Mount, he knows that there is a genuine concern that incitement can quickly turn into murder.”
Subsequent to the complaint filed by Honenu, in early January 2015 Sheikh Abu Sara’a was detained for interrogation and issued a restraining order banning him from ascending the Temple Mount. The Attorney General’s office filed an indictment on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 against Sheikh Omar Abu Sara’a for incitement due to sermons he gave on the Temple Mount in which he called for the murder of Jews. Also the sheikh’s restrictive conditions were extended until the end of proceedings.
Honenu attorney Hur Uriel Nizri welcomed the indictment but stressed that the law enforcement system in Israel still needs to be improved. “Filing the indictment is a step which must be welcomed. However the conduct of the police and other law enforcement authorities concerning incitement against Jews is weak and must be strengthened. As we saw today [21/1/2015] in the streets of Tel Aviv, incitement can lead to actual terror and the murder of Jews for being Jewish,” said Nizri. “Today it is obvious to anyone with any sense that incitement is not just words, definitely when it comes from public figures. At this opportunity I call on the Israeli Police to not abandon my client, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, to his fate and to provide him with suitable protection. The lack of protection by the law authorities is unacceptable.”