AKIPRESS.COM - Israel announced Tuesday it has outlawed an Islamist party accused of inciting violence among the country's Arab citizens, as part of measures to stamp out a two month-long deadly escalation.

The government declared the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement of Israel illegal, saying its activists could be subject to arrest if they violate the ban, reports AP.

The party, which provides religious and educational services for Israeli Arabs, routinely accuses Israel of trying to take over a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a charge Israel denies. The site is at the heart of the latest surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

After the decision, Israeli forces searched more than a dozen of the group's offices around the country, seizing computers, files and funds, police said. Authorities also froze its bank accounts and said that 17 organizations affiliated with the party were served with orders to close down.

Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan linked the decision to the attacks in Paris, saying in a statement that "Israel must act as an example and spearhead the struggle against radical Islam whose emissaries we saw massacring innocent people in Paris" and elsewhere.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the goal is to stop the dangerous incitement at home and prevent harm to innocent life."