Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, a member of the Waqf Council, head of the Supreme Muslim Council, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and one of the most prominent Muslim public figures in Palestine and beyond, has attracted a lot of unwanted attention by Israel. He is repeatedly targeted by the Israeli authorities as well as by extremist religious settlement groups because they consider him a leading Palestinian Muslim symbol.

Since October 7, 2023, all imams leading Friday prayers in al-Aqsa Mosque have called for the funeral prayer in absentia for the souls of the Palestinians slain during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, whom Palestinians refer to as martyrs.

Accordingly, during the Friday sermon on August 2, 2024, Sheikh Ekrima made reference to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, and he included Haniyeh among the martyrs as he recited this prayer. This is what he said:

Sheikh Ekrima’s daughter Lubaba, an academic, spoke to Jerusalem Story and described the family’s terror when her father was taken from the home. On previous occasions, the police typically waited until the beginning of the week (Sunday) and threw a military order outside the house; this time, they actually entered the family home directly. Lubaba relayed:

The family worried about the sheikh because of his age and health; he requires daily medications that the family were too frightened to give him before he was hauled away, for fear that the police would keep him overnight. But they also feared that he would be physically abused while in detention, as Palestinian prisoners have widely reported, especially after October 7, 2023.3

Lubaba described how the experience was traumatic for the family: “From the moment that he [Sheikh Ekrima] got arrested, all of us in the family were in a debilitating condition. It has taken quite a toll on our mental health. All of us were highly on edge; we were shaking. We as a family are traumatized.”

Hamza Qatina, the lawyer of Sheikh Ekrima, told Jerusalem Story that after a five-hour interrogation, the Jerusalem Police Commander issued a decision banning Sheikh Ekrima from al-Aqsa Mosque for a period of time.

The police deliberately photographed Sheikh Ekrima in the investigation room with a huge Israeli flag behind him, which they then published on social media.

Advocate Qatina told Jerusalem Story:

Khaled Zabarqa, another lawyer defending Sheikh Ekrima, announced that the Israeli authorities informed the sheikh that he was banned from entering al-Aqsa Mosque for six months.5

This is not the first time that Sheikh Ekrima has been banned from al-Aqsa for six months, Zabarqa observed. He received his first six-month ban in 2020, in addition to other subsequent orders. He has also been banned from traveling outside Palestine. It is clear that the sheikh is being targeted by Israeli authorities. He may be the most well-known religious figure in Jerusalem who has been subjected to banishment orders from al-Aqsa in recent years.

Sheikh Ekrima told Jerusalem Story that the Israelis do not want any voice criticizing the occupation’s violations in al-Aqsa Mosque. “I explained to them that my position is a principled position of faith that will not change. I told them directly, ‘al-Aqsa is for Muslims only, and there is no room for giving up any grain of soil from al-Aqsa.’”6

Sheikh Ekrima comes from a family known for its religiosity. His father, Saeed Sabri, was a judge in Jerusalem and a member of the Sharia Court of Appeal.

Sheikh Ekrima is the founder of the Association of Scholars and Preachers in Palestine in 1992 and the head of the Islamic Supreme Fatwa Council in Palestine. He is a founding member of the World Islamic Mosques Conference Association in Mecca and has been the head of the Higher Muslim Committee in Jerusalem since 1997.

His stature as a Muslim leader makes Israel’s attack on him all the more disturbing. His daughter observed: “They had threatened to demolish our house, and they have prohibited him from traveling anywhere. We live in fear.”

But, she concluded, the family takes strength from his resolve: