Islamist media is reporting that Raed Salah, head of what is essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, has begun serving a nine-month prison sentence in Israel in connection with incitement to violence there last year. According to the Middle East Monitor report:
May 8, 2016 Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel and Palestinian resistance icon, began a nine-month jail term Sunday after being convicted earlier by an Israeli court for ‘incitement’. Salah, along with dozens of supporters, arrived at southern Israel’s Beersheba Prison on Sunday morning, where he will serve out the sentence.
‘This prison sentence will not deter us from maintaining the defence of [Jerusalem’s] Al-Aqsa Mosque,’ a defiant Salah told reporters before entering the detention facility.
‘We will not abandon Al-Aqsa and will continue to fight against the [Israeli] occupation’s schemes to destroy it,’ he added.
Last October, an Israeli district court sentenced Salah to eleven months in jail for ‘incitement’.
In April, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal lodged by Salah’s lawyer but commuted his sentence to nine months behind bars.”
The GMBDW reported in November 2015 that an Israeli court had sentenced Raed Salah, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, to 11 months jail for his role in inciting the violence occurring in Israel at that time. A Hamas spokesman condemned the sentence calling it “an extension of the Israeli aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque.” GMBDW reporting on Raed Salah and the key role played by the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel in the violence that included:
- At the end of August 2015, we reported that Israel’s Internal Security minister had asked the Minister of Defense to urgently ban two organizations operating on the Temple Mount and funded by the Islamic Movement. According to another Israeli media report at the time, Raed Salah spoke out against the move saying that Arabs who attack police and Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount represent “the ‘honor’ of the Muslim nation and the Arab world”
- We reported in January 2015 that the internal security service Shin Bet had shut down three Islamic charities for allegedly inciting violence against Jews and Israeli security forces. According an Israel Hayom report, the charities were created in October 2014 by the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel.
- In June 2014, we reported on claims by the Shin Bet that a senior Hamas official arrested in April had admitted that Hamas is exploiting the Islamic Movement in Israel to promote its interests in Jerusalem. We had reported a few days earlier that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to outlaw the Northern branch of the Islamic Movement..
Raed Salah is the leader of the so-called 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 conspiracies theories involving alleged Israeli plots and plans to destroy the mosque.)
For profile on Raed Salah, go here.
For a profile of the Islamic Movement in Israel, go here.