RAMALLAH: The head of the northern branch of Islamic Movement inside Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, said that Israel is constantly digging tunnels under the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was planning to rebuild the temple.
Salah, who was speaking Wednesday afternoon in front of Muslim students at Haifa University, briefed them on the history of his movement and on the criminal proceedings taken against him and his people by Israeli security several years ago.
He said that he had rejected the Israeli internal spy agency Shin Bet’s offers to agree to concessions in Jerusalem.
“We love life, our families, our homes and our children, but if they suggest that we give up our principles and holy sites, we would rather die and we will welcome death.”
Salah said that the Israeli government continued constantly to dig tunnels under the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that Netanyahu was planning to complete them during his current term.
At the same time, some 150 Jewish students outside the auditorium were waving Israeli flags and yelling “This is not Tehran.”
The Jewish students were protesting against the event and the fact that the university only allowed Arab students to take part in it. A Haifa University official said that Salah had not been invited by the institution and that there was no legal way to prevent him from coming.
