On Wednesday, the Israeli Public Prosecution filed an indictment against the preacher of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri (85 years old). Due to "incitement".

During recent years, Sheikh Sabri has been repeatedly arrested, summoned for investigation, deported from Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, and banned from traveling.

His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said: “The Israeli authorities submitted an indictment to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court against Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, alleging incitement and identification with terrorism.”

He explained that "the list was presented following a speech given by Sheikh Sabri when he offered his condolences to the martyrs of Jenin (north of the occupied West Bank), as they consider the sheikh's speech to be an identification with terrorism," according to what was reported by the Anatolia News Agency.

Zabarqa added: "But the sheikh offered his condolences to the families of the martyrs on the death of their sons, using the words of sympathy and condolence that everyone says."

Zabarqa stressed that submitting the indictment is “one of the types of religious war waged by the Israeli authorities against Islamic religious concepts derived from the Holy Qur’an and the honorable Sunnah of the Prophet.”

He continued: "Therefore, Israel is combatively fighting these religious concepts, and this is unprecedented in domestic or international criminal law."

He said: “It is implicitly known that religious concepts are always outside the discussion of the criminal law, and it does not apply to them because they are concepts derived from faith and belief.” He stressed that "the authorities may not criminalize religious concepts or attempt to criminalize them and place them on the table of the judicial system."

He reported that there is "clear chaos among the Israeli authorities. Their behavior is uncontrolled, they act hysterically and they try to strike everywhere without rationality."

According to Zabarqa, “Sheikh Ikrima Sabri is the voice of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the voice of Jerusalem, and the voice of the local and global Palestinian community, and they want to silence this voice through indictments, thinking that they can silence him.”

He added: "But Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri is an official and legal personality who fulfills his religious, social, intellectual and scientific role in the issue of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian society as a whole."

He said: "We believe that this is a political persecution driven by extremist Israeli groups, which have become an integral part of the government, and therefore the procedures lacked real legal considerations and were replaced by political considerations."

Zabarqa held the Israeli authorities “fully responsible for the safety of Sheikh Sabri, because the mere submission of the fabricated indictment against him is considered incitement to target him.”

He pointed out, "After submitting the indictment, the court will set a session to present the indictment, after which we will take legal procedures within the corridors of the courts to refute what is contained therein."

On a daily basis, the Israeli army storms towns and cities in the occupied West Bank, raiding homes, arresting and assaulting Palestinians and killing others, claiming that they are wanted by security forces.