Muslim leader faces investigation over al-Aqsa

JERUSALEM, Feb 22 (Reuters) Israeli police said today they would open an investigation into comments made by an Islamic leader who led protests against Israeli excavations near al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, had called for a new uprising against what he termed an ''Israeli crime''.

Israel says the work near al-Aqsa aims to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading up to a religious compound sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

But the work has angered Arabs and Muslims who fear it could damage foundations of the 1,300-year-old mosque in Jerusalem's Old City.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the police would investigate Salah ''on suspicion of incitement of violence ... and racism'' when he spoke at rallies in Jerusalem and the northern city of Nazareth.

Salah told Reuters earlier this week that he had publicly called ''on the Islamic and Arab world for an intifada to support al-Aqsa.'' Israel's Haaretz newspaper also quoted Salah as saying: ''(Israel) wants to build their temple while our blood is on their clothing, on their doorposts, in their food and in their water.'' Israel, in a bid to mollify Muslim outrage, announced last week it would freeze plans to build the new walkway and invited a Turkish team to inspect the dig.

Israel captured the Old City along with the rest of Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area as its capital in a move not recognised internationally.

Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

REUTERS BDP BD1821