OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, August 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli police abducted Thursday, August 22, the former spokesman of the Greek Orthodox church in Jerusalem for questioning, claiming that he is lending support to “terrorist organizations,” then released him five hours later.

Father Attallah Hannah, a former spokesman for the Greek Orthodox church, is an Arab Israeli from the northern Nazareth region known for his public support for the Palestinian resistance as well as his criticism of Israeli atrocities.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) condemned his detention claiming it was aimed at "silencing a man who fights for human rights and a fair solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict."

The PLO's committee on religious affairs said in a statement that "the detention was an unacceptable interference in Christian affairs."

Israeli Superintendant Gil Kleiman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Hannah was suspected of “having given help to terrorist organizations.”

Hannah was also being questioned about trips he made to Lebanon and Syria, with which Israel is still officially at war, and during which he apparently met with Hassan Nassrallah, secretary general of the Lebanese movement Hizbullah, Kleiman said.

The Israeli police also said that the Orthodox priest was arrested following his statement in which he supported the “suicide” attacks against Israel.

Jerusalem Patriarch, Arinos I, under Israeli pressure, removed Father Hannah from his post as a spokesman of the church.

Israeli foreign ministry had earlier send a letter to the new patriarch asking him to remove Father Hannah from his post.

Israel has refused to acknowledge the new patriarch unless he makes more concessions and give up more lands and real estates to Israel, said Father Hannah in an interview to Al-Sennara newspaper.

“The decision of my removal is a U.S.-Israeli one, not a Catholic decision,” he told IslamOnline in a live dialogue on August 5.

Father Hannah has repeatedly said that the Palestinian people will liberate their land and declare their independent state with persistence and resistance against the Israeli occupation without waiting for decisions from the United Nations Security Council, adding that a Palestinian state will be built sooner or later on the shoulders of resistance fighters, not international decisions.

The Palestinian ambitions in having a state will not be determined or fulfilled by security council resolutions. Instead, it is the resistance on the ground that will do this mission, he said in an interview broadcasted on Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite channel Thursday, March 14.

He also said that he peaceful initiatives will not be able to face the Israeli military machinery killing Palestinians every day, adding that the Palestinians are the only ones able to defend their occupied land.

Israel, with all its U.S.-made weapons, as well as U.S. support, failed to impose itself on the Palestinian people who continue to resist and will never give up their stolen rights, he said.

He also said that the issue of the U.S. strike on Iraq is a plot to distract the world, especially the Arab countries, from the massacres the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is committing against the Palestinian people.

Christian and Muslim leaders called for Hanna's immediate release, calling the detention a violation of the right to religious freedom and free speech.

Israel is embroiled in a dispute with the Greek Orthodox Church and has refused to recognize the church's patriarch for the Holy Land, Arinos I, who was elected a year ago.