UK national faces deportation from Israel after ‘attacking police officers’

A British citizen is due to be deported from Israel after being arrested in Jerusalem on Sunday, June 18. The man, Nabid Mohammed Ashraf, is accused of attacking police officers on the Temple Mount.

Together with a German national, Farhad Nuri Said, Ashraf is believed to have slept on the Temple Mount in the days preceding the clash with police. The pair claimed to police that their intention was “to defend al-Aqsa”, the mosque holy to Muslims on the Temple Mount complex.

An Israeli police spokesman told Jewish News that the two men were arrested on the Temple Mount “for attacking police officers when the area was opened for visitors”.

According to an Israeli news report, worshippers in the mosque confronted Israeli police officers and threw stones at them, lightly injuring three of the officers. The two assailants who were arrested were the German and British citizens, who appeared in Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

A spokesperson for the British Embassy in Tel Aviv said: “We are in contact with local authorities following the arrest of a British national in Jerusalem on June 18. The British Embassy does not discuss individual cases.”

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman told Jewish News: “We are in contact with authorities in Israel following the arrest of a British man.”