Israel police ban leading Sheikh from Al-Aqsa Mosque for six months

The Israel occupation police detained and interrogated a leading Palestinian Sheikh on Wednesday evening before banning him from Al-Aqsa Mosque for more than six months, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported.

Sheikh Najeh Bakirat is the former deputy head of the Islamic Awqaf Administration in occupied Jerusalem. He was snatched by police from his car near Al-Maghariba Gate in the Old City.

Local sources said that police officers confiscated Sheikh Bakirat’s car and took him to the Moskobiya detention centre, where he was interrogated for about two hours and then handed an order banning his entry to Al-Aqsa Mosque for one week. Sheikh Bakirat was then ordered to go back to the detention centre next week to receive a six-month extension to his ban on going to the mosque, which is the third holiest shrine in the Islamic world.

The Israeli police also detained Sheikh Bakirat’s son, Dawoud, at one of the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque. He was taken to Qishla police station, where he was also banned from entering the mosque for a week.

READ: Israel continues deadly onslaught in occupied West Bank