Dozens of Israeli Arabs marched from Haifa in the direction of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday, as an alleged expression of public support for Jordan’s iron-fist rule of Judaism’s holiest site. 

The six-day march, stretching some 200 kilometers, will end on Thursday – Israel’s Independence Day. Among the initiators: Sheikh Raed Salah, whose northern Islamic Movement was formally blacklisted in November 2015. 

Organizers told the Palestinian Quds Press that the march was intended to convey two key messages: the responsibility of every Muslim to protect Muslim interests on the Mount – i.e. to enforce the utter lack of religious freedom there for Jews – and the reconciliation among different factions in Arab society. 

Salah claimed the march is one small step to rid the world of “Israeli occupation.” 

In March 2014, Jerusalem’s Magistrates’ Court found him guilty of inciting unrest at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Mount in 2007, sentencing him to eight months in prison.

The state as well as Salah appealed the decision, and in 2014 the Jerusalem District Court convicted him of incitement to racism as well, increasing his sentence to 11 months, a decision appealed once more by both sides.

In October 2015 the District Court upheld the decision, with Salah requesting permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. 

Salah began his prison term earlier Sunday.