Source: Israel Hasbara Committee By Amihai ZipporThe head of Israel's Northern Islamic Movement, Sheik Ra'ad Salah, said Israel's rule over Jerusalem will soon come to an end and pleaded for Hizbullah and Hamas not to release the three abducted IDF soldiers until Israel releases all Palestinians in its jails. "
The Israeli occupation will leave Jerusalem soon. It will happen sooner than is thought," Salah said on Friday, 15 September 2006.
He also announced that the Caliphate, a Muslim leader described as being the heir of the prophet Muhammad, will be reestablished in the near future and rule from Jerusalem.
Salah's remarks were made at a rally billed "Al-Aksa endangered," which refers to the mosque on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, that he believes Israel is undermining.
It was not the first time he has spoken out against the State and made such claims.
As the former mayor of the Israeli-Arab town Umm al-Fahm, Salah was arrested in May 2003 on charges he held contacts with an Iranian intelligence agent, for incitement and for transferring funds to the terrorist group Hamas.
Since his release in 2005, he has maintained Israel is digging tunnels under the Temple Mount, placing the mosque in danger.
However, in actuality, successive Israeli governments have allowed the Muslims to dig under the Temple Mount without supervision, to build and widen an existing prayer area.
The result has been the destruction of vast amounts of buried ruins and artifacts from the time of the First and Second Temples, which stood more than 2000 years ago.
