The chief justice of the Palestinian Islamic courts, Sheikh Taysir Al Tamimi, was arrested by Israeli authorities Monday night at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, according to Israeli police and Palestinian reports.
"Sheikh Al Tamimi was arrested to be questioned," a spokesman for the Israeli police had said.
The official WAFA news agency said that Tamimi was contacted by telephone in Israeli custody. It said he was arrested at the exit of the mosque compound with four other judges and that he had been taken to the Moskoubia prison, located at the police west Jerusalem police headquarters.
Furthermore, Al Tamimi told WAFA that a large number of Israeli troops surrounded him and four other Shariah judges while they were going to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque, after having the Iftar (fast breaking meal).
He added that he was informed that he was to be led to the Al Moskoubia detention center and that he was under arrest.
In addition, he said that the soldiers told him that he would be presented for trial on Tuesday. He was not, however, informed about the charges that led to his arrest. According to Israeli media reports, he was arrested on charges of "incitement".
Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on Tuesday rejected a suggestion that a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would stop a wave of "global terrorism".
"You would have to note that it was only (lately) that Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership could even find it in themselves to mention the word Palestinian," Armitage told reporters after talks in Cairo with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
"So I reject the notion that a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, overwhelmingly important as it is, would stop the terrorism that has been directed against the United States, Western interests and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," he said.
"I can accept the point that they will make use of conflict in the occupied territories for their own ends, but it is not the root cause of al-Qaeda terrorism," he added.
"The support for the United States for Israel is something that is a bedrock principle of the United States," said Armitage.
"That does not mean that we support every action the government of Israel takes," he said, recalling U.S. criticism of "targetted killings" of Palestinian leaders.
"We have very in depth and intense dicussions with Israel," he said.
"And we feel the best and most effective way to have those discussions is official to official privately rather than standing up and screaming from the top of some building across the street at the Israelis," he said.
For his part, Moussa said later that he believes that Armitage and other American officials "do understand the extreme seriousness of the situation" between the Israelis and Palestinians. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
