Union of Good media is reporting that the Prime Minister of Hamas-ruled Gaza has praised a “relief campaign” for Gaza announced by the leader of the Israeli Muslim Brotherhood. According to the report:
Raed Salah
Palestinian premire ,of Gaza caretaker government, Ismail Haneyya valued the initiative that was made lately by Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, to organize a relief campaign for the Gaza Strip.
‘Premier Ismail Haneyya appreciates the announcement made by Sheikh of Al-Aqsa Ra’ed Salah about a relief campaign to break the blockade of Gaza,’ spokesman for the government Ihab Al-Ghussein stated on his Facebook page on Saturday.
The spokesman added that Haneyya hails the efforts made by Sheikh Salah, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinians in the 1948 occupied lands to protect the Islamic holy sites and support the national issues.
Sheikh Salah had declared during the 18th festival of ‘Al-Aqsa in Danger’ that was held in Umm Al-Fahm town that the Islamic Movement would launch a campaign to help Gaza people and support their steadfastness in the face of tribulations.
In his speech, he described as a traitor everyone who has conspired against Al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Aqsa Mosque, the refugees and the Gaza Strip.
Raed Salah is the leader of the Northern branch of the Islamic Movement, essentially comprising the Israeli Muslim Brotherhood. He is noted for often alleging that Israel is conspiring to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (The Al-Aqsa Mosque is often the subject of various Global Muslim Brotherhood conspiraciestheories involving alleged Israeli plots and plans to destroy the mosque.)
In May 2003, Salah was arrested along with other Northern Islamic Movement officials on suspicion of transferring funds to Hamas under the pretense of humanitarian aid. He was released after two years under the terms of a plea bargain. In August 2007, Salah was indicted for “inciting racism and violence” for calling for a “third Intifada,” or uprising, to defend the Al-Aqsa mosque and in 2008 Israeli security forces raided the offices of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel accusing it of aiding Hamas. In 2009, Salah said that Israel had a ‘diabolical plan” to cause the Al–Aqsa Mosque to collapse “in a way that would appear as is happening as a result of natural causes, such an earthquake.” In January 2010, Salah was convicted of assaulting an Israeli policeman and participating in a violent demonstration.
In April 2012, Mr Salah won an appeal against a deportation order issued by the UK where he had been residing on the basis that his presence “would not be conducive to the public good”. Mr.Salah had been arrested in 2011 after he was allowed to enter the country despite being banned on the basis of “virulent anti-Semitism”. In September of 2012, Mr. Salah predicted that Israel actions toward the Al-Aqsa Mosque will “speed up the demise of the Zionist entity” and deliver the West from “Global Zionism.” In March 2013, Mr Salah warned U.S. President Obama not to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque during his upcoming visit to Israel.
In June 2011, a BBC producer described the anti-Semitic and extremist views of Mr. Salah:
Supporters of the sheikh insist he is opposed to all forms of racism. Sheikh Salah’s Islamic Movement is reported to have mourned the death of Osama Bin Laden, calling him a “martyr” and his killers “Satanic”. While British law entitles such a view to be expressed, it could weigh as a factor in denying entry to a non-British citizen. Conspiracy theory Another consideration may have been an article that Sheikh Salah wrote three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, in which he said that unlike Muslim workers in the World Trade Center, Jewish workers had been absent on 9/11. ”Were 4,000 Jewish clerks absent by chance, or was there another reason?” he asked, alluding to a conspiracy theory that is still advanced by some extreme groups that the Israeli secret service Mossad – not al-Qaeda – was behind the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people. Although similar 9/11 conspiracy theories have been found to be not uncommon within some Islamist groups in Britain, this could also have counted against Sheikh Salah. He is also reported to have made a speech in February 2007 during a protest in East Jerusalem in which he accused Jews of using children’s blood to bake bread.
A MEMRI report also describes Mr. Salah’s history of extremist views.
Knowledgable sources report that Salah is currently residing in Israel.
