JERUSALEM -- Some 40,000 Israeli Arabs, mostly schoolchildren, turned out Saturday for a festival at east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that was the highlight of a campaign for the protection of the revered site, police said.

The festival, organized by Israel's Islamic Movement, capped a year-long fund raising campaign for the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Israeli police deployed extra patrols in the old city, located in the annexed eastern part of jerusalem, in case of incidents or traffic problems.

The Islamic Movement claims the Al-Aqsa Mosque is threatened by Israel and its campaign has helped finance, among other things, the building of a prayer room in the base of the holy complex.

Israeli authorities have several times threatened to ban the Islamic Movement, which they charge preaches a radical form of Islam to Israeli Arabs and has connections with radical Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have been responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel.

Its leader, Sheikh Raed Saleh, is banned from traveling outside the country, AFP reported.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex, known as the temple mount to Jews, was where the latest Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, erupted on September 28, 2000, with clashes between police and Arabs after a visit by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.