Israel adopts anti-Islamic Movement measures

In a special session initiated by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in his office on Sunday evening, Israel decided to take a number of measures to monitor closely activities of the Islamic Movement.

The Israeli ministers who attended the meeting were briefed by police and Shin Bet officers on alleged links between the Islamic Movement in Israel and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement in the Occupied Territories. The police and Shin Bet officers came out of the meeting "very disappointed," as one Israeli source put it. The ministers rejected their proposal that Israel use the emergency regulations that date back to the days of the British Mandate in Palestine before 1948 in order to curtail the activities of the Islamic Movement. Some of those measures include deportation of leaders of the movement out of the country or placing them under administrative detention in Israeli jails.

The ministers decided to adopt a tight policy and to monitor closely all sorts of activities by the Islamic Movement. The government watch will cover publications issued by the movement, speeches delivered by Imams in the mosques during prayers and money allegedly transferred from the Islamic Movement in Israel to families of Hamas suicide bombers in the Occupied Territories.