JERUSALEM - Israeli police on Thursday briefly detained a senior official of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem on suspicion he illegally visited Syria and Lebanon, where Israel said he expressed support for terrorist organizations fighting the Jewish state.
Atallah Hanna, spokesman for the church, was taken from his home in Jerusalem's Old City to the Jerusalem district police headquarters and questioned for six hours before being released.
Hanna, an Israeli Arab born near Nazareth, said the arrest was unjustified as he had only expressed opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and spoken in defense of Palestinian rights.
Christian and Muslim leaders said Hanna's detention was a violation of rights to religious freedom and free speech.
Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Hanna was questioned on suspicion of showing support for terrorist organizations and for illegally entering Lebanon and Syria. "He made statements on television in those countries showing support for terror organizations and for attacks against Israeli civilians," Kleiman said.
Kleiman said that as an Israeli citizen Hanna is not allowed to enter neighboring Lebanon and Syria, with whom Israel is technically still at war.
Israel also suspects that Hanna called on Christians to participate in the Palestinian uprising, according to Israel Radio.
Israel is embroiled in a dispute with the Greek Orthodox Church and has refused to recognize the church's patriarch for the Holy Land, Eireneos I, who was elected a year ago.
Under Holy Land traditions going back centuries, a new patriarch has to be vetted by the rulers of the areas where his flock lives — in Eireneos' case Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Without the recognition, the patriarch cannot represent the church in dealings with the host country. Jordan and the Palestinian Authority recognized Eireneos shortly after his election.
Church officials say one of the reasons for the dispute with Israel is the patriarch's refusal to meet Israeli demands to fire Hanna, whom Israel considers to be close to the Palestinian Authority. Israel and the Greek Orthodox Church are also at odds over some of the vast land holdings of the Jerusalem patriarchate. Some of the land had been leased to Israel, and the church refuses to extend the leases.
On his return home Thursday, Atallah was welcomed with applause and embraces by dozens of well-wishers. He denied supporting terror, saying he called only for peaceful resistance to occupation.
"We are speaking about the type of resistance that acts according to humanity and peaceful ways," he told The Associated Press
He said that his meetings with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon took place during a conference on Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Marwan Toubasi, the spokesman of the Greek Orthodox community in the West Bank, said Hanna's detention was "part of the Israeli attacks on the religious freedom for Christian and Muslim religious men."
"(It is) an attempt to silence the voice that expresses the pains of his community which is part of the Palestinian people," he said.