VZCZCXRO9643
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHTV #2839/01 3531340
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181340Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9675
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 002839 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KISL KIRF SOCI IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELI ISLAMIC MOVEMENT GAINING INFLUENCE 
 
REF:  A) TELAVIV 2534, B) TELAVIV 1081, C) 03 TELAVIV 4397 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  The official goal of the Islamic Movement in 
Israel is to bring Muslims living in "Palestine of 1948" back to 
Islam. The Movement has focused its efforts on three primary fronts 
-- the social, the religious, and the political.  While efforts on 
the political front have been limited by divisions within the 
Movement itself and by the entrenchment of clan-based politics in 
Israel's Arab communities (as evidenced in the November 11 municipal 
elections), the Movement has been somewhat more successful in 
promoting its Islamic agenda on the social front. By providing its 
own considerable social services to the underserviced Arab sector, 
the Islamic Movement has begun to create socially self-sufficient 
Arab communities within Israel. At the same time, the split between 
the radical Northern Branch, whose leader regularly incites against 
Zionism and the Israeli government, and the more moderate Southern 
Branch, which generally values coexistence, continues to limit the 
Movement's ambitions.  END SUMMARY 
 
--------------------------- 
Origins of the Movement 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The character, goals, and tactics of the Islamic Movement 
in Israel have changed dramatically over the course of the last 
thirty-seven years. Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish founded the Islamic 
Movement of Israel in 1971 as an ideological offshoot of the 
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.  Darwish also founded a separate 
underground group, Usrat al-Jihad, in 1979. Throughout the 1970s, 
the Movement gained notoriety due to its underground paramilitary 
activities, according to Dr. Nohad Ali, an expert on the Islamic 
Movement at Haifa University.  Its goal was to destroy the Israeli 
economy, and tactics included violent measures such as burning 
Israeli fields. In 1980, Israeli police jailed several of the 
Movement's leaders, including Sheikh Darwish.  Following his release 
from prison in 1984, Darwish instructed his followers to employ only 
lawful activity with a focus on proselytizing, education, and the 
development of health and welfare programs for Arab communities. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Local Politics and the Radical-Moderate Divide 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶3. (SBU) During the 1980s and 90s, leaders of the Movement faced a 
crisis of identity and direction as they sought to define themselves 
politically within the context of living within a Jewish state. When 
Sheikh Darwish advocated the Islamic Movement's participation in the 
1996 Knesset elections, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah disagreed, and the 
Movement split into two factions -- the more moderate Southern 
Branch headed by Darwish, with support primarily in the Negev and 
parts of the Galilee, and the radical Northern Branch headed by 
Salah, with support centered in the "Triangle" region bordering the 
northern West Bank. The Islamic Movement as a whole, including both 
branches, provides an umbrella over a network of non-governmental 
organizations and affiliated mosques, and each looks to a different 
"branch" depending on its political views. (Comment: Describing the 
Movement as divided into northern and southern factions is somewhat 
of a false dichotomy, but it does provide a useful short-cut when 
discussing the Movement and its political division over whether to 
cooperate with or disassociate itself from the institutions of the 
State of Israel.  End comment.) 
 
¶4. (SBU) Though he states that he no longer participates in 
politics, Sheikh Darwish remains the Southern Branch's spiritual 
leader and is actively involved in both Islamic social outreach and, 
increasingly, Jewish-Muslim coexistence efforts.  Unlike the 
Northern Branch, the Southern Branch has a clear and generally 
transparent organizational structure, with a leader, deputy head, 
and various committees (www.islammov.com).  The Southern Branch is 
currently headed by Member of Knesset Ibrahim Sarsour, head of the 
four-seat United Arab List in the Knesset, while the more loosely 
organized Northern Branch remains under the leadership of Ra'ed 
Salah. 
 
¶5. (SBU) While the Northern Branch participates in municipal 
politics, it will not contest national elections and does not 
officially recognize Israel's legitimacy as a state.  To the extent 
possible, it minimizes its interactions with the organs of national 
government.  In the November 11 municipal elections, the Northern 
Branch held onto the mayoralty and city council in the Triangle's 
largest town, Umm al-Fahm. Southern Branch-affiliated candidates won 
or maintained significant representation on the city councils of at 
least five Israeli Arab towns, plus the politically-important mixed 
Muslim and Christian city of Nazareth. However, the Southern Branch 
lost its 20-year grip on the symbolically important town of Kafr 
Kassem, which was the birthplace of the movement. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The combined results of the two branches' showing in the 
November 11 municipal elections shows a stagnation or even slight 
decline in the Islamic Movement's role in local politics for both 
branches.  As a whole, the Movement won fewer council seats and 
fewer mayoralties this year than in Israel's last municipal 
 
TEL AVIV 00002839  002 OF 003 
 
 
elections in 2003.  Muhannad Mustafa, an expert on Israeli Arab 
politics at Haifa University, attributed both factions' political 
difficulties to the rural nature of the Arab communities. He told 
ConOff that in contrast to nearby places such as the West Bank, Gaza 
and Egypt, where political Islam has developed deeper roots by 
capitalizing on the stresses of urbanization, the Islamic Movement 
in Israel has found it very difficult to gain a stable political 
foothold in the face of the clan-based politics that still holds 
sway among Israel's comparatively rural Arab citizens. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In contrast to its limited success in local politics, the 
Movement is rapidly taking control of the Arab Student Union, the 
primary incubator of emerging Arab leaders in Israel. In June, the 
Northern Branch contested the Arab Student Union elections at Tel 
Aviv University for the first time. Running under the banner of the 
IQRA International Education Foundation, candidates promised to 
continue aiding members of the Arab sector in all areas of life. 
According to Israeli Media, it won in a landslide. In April, the 
Northern and Southern Branches ran together at Hebrew University 
under the IQRA banner and won. A few months previous, the Northern 
Branch ran at Haifa University and defeated the Hadash party, a 
former communist party comprising Jews, Muslims and Christians, 
which had previously dominated. IQRA chair Nasim Badarna credited 
the win at Tel Aviv University to the Islamic Movement's social 
programs, saying "we knew we'd be able to overpower everyone else, 
thanks to our hard work years before the election in providing aid 
to Arab students." 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Islamic Movement remains divided over political 
ideology. Over time, the Southern Branch has solidified its 
reputation as the more pragmatic and moderate branch although it too 
contests the legitimacy of the state. One of its members, MK Abbas 
Zakoor, has been active in trying to mend the community wounds in 
Akko following the riots between Jews and Arabs in October. By 
contrast, the Northern Branch has continued to embrace its hardline 
political positions and radical reputation. The 1999 Rosh Hashanah 
bombings in Tiberias and Haifa were tied to members of the Northern 
Branch, and on May 13, 2000, Sheikh Salah was arrested for 
incitement and for providing human and financial aid to 
terrorist-linked associations in the Palestinian territories. He 
served time in prison from 2003 - 2005. Unlike Darwish, however, 
Salah's time in prison did not have a moderating effect. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Northern Branch and the Al-Aqsa Mosque 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The Northern Branch continues to clash with Israeli 
authorities. For example, in August 2008, Israeli police and 
security forces raided the headquarters of Sheikh Salah's Al-Aqsa 
Foundation for the Reconstruction of Islamic Holy Places in Umm 
al-Fahm. The police confiscated documents, maps, money and 
fundraising lists, claiming that the Foundation was working in 
concert with HAMAS. Salah, who has no role with the Islamic Waqf in 
Jerusalem and whose activities are often frowned upon by Waqf 
officials, has for years used the Al-Aqsa Foundation as a platform 
for denouncing Jewish Israelis for their alleged desecrations of the 
Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque.  In early 2007, he 
called on Israeli Arabs to rise up and start a third intifada in 
order to "rescue" Jerusalem from the Jewish state (an act for which 
he is now facing incitement charges). 
 
¶10. (SBU) Through various media sources including Al-Jazeera and 
those owned by HAMAS, Salah has worked to spread the idea that the 
Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger. Two days before the raid on the Al-Aqsa 
Foundation, Salah addressed followers gathered at the annual Al-Aqsa 
festival: "I say to the Israeli occupation... after 40 years that 
you are occupying the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and digging all sorts of 
ditches and building synagogues under the mosque... I say to you 
that your occupation will be removed from above Jerusalem and from 
the Mosque." Ynet News in Israel also reported that Salah told the 
crowd that Israelis drank alcohol in the mosque and engaged in 
sexual activities on its grounds. Dr. Ali told ConOff that nearly 
70,000 people attended the Al-Aqsa festival in 2008, and he watched 
as women donated gold off their wrists into a growing pile, all 
allegedly for the protection of the mosque. In a conversation with 
Poloff, Northern Branch Spokesman Zahi Nagidat was adamant that the 
Israelis were conspiring to destroy Al-Aqsa and replace it with a 
rebuilt Jewish Temple. He also asserted that "there was no real 
evidence of an historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem." 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Promoting Islam through Social Services 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) In contrast to its limited success on its divided 
political front, both branches of the Islamic Movement have met with 
considerable success on the social front. Both have worked, 
sometimes together and sometimes separately, to provide a social 
infrastructure outside the Israeli national system for the 
under-serviced Arab sector. According to Mustafa, this 
infrastructure consists of a wide network of kindergartens, clinics, 
 
TEL AVIV 00002839  003 OF 003 
 
 
ambulances, community centers, libraries, and lecture halls, all at 
nominal or no cost. In addition, the Movement, including elements of 
both branches, has established an independent soccer league of 38 
teams, opened numerous book stores, and provided opportunities for 
volunteer activity. Through its charities, the Movement provides 
assistance to the poor and finances construction of homes demolished 
by Israeli authorities in the unrecognized Bedouin communities as 
well as those damaged by Jews during periods of inter-communal 
violence, such as occurred in Akko in October. The Movement has 
created numerous local and national non-profit organizations, some 
of which provide social services and others which serve as 
fund-raising organizations for Muslim causes. The Movement provides 
several alternative education programs, including an Islamic college 
whose student population is more than half female; funding of 
medical training both in Israel and abroad; and various 
adult-education courses. It sponsors two newspapers; schools and 
centers for religious studies; and several religious festivals 
throughout the year. Thus, apart from its lackluster political 
status at the local or national level, the Movement is succeeding in 
creating self-sufficient Islamic communities within the State of 
Israel. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The Movement's promotion of a return to Islamic law and 
traditions is closely tied to its success in providing social 
services. Most of the social services are provided at community 
centers that also include mosques. As people come to the community 
centers to receive social services, they also are expected to hear 
the messages of the Imam.  As the religiously observant community 
expands, more and more people participate in the religious 
activities and festivals held at the community centers and their 
mosques, and more and more people donate what money they are able to 
the various charities run by the Islamic Movement. 
 
CUNNINGHAM