Sentencing of Raed Salah provokes widespread condemnation

In the case known as Mughrabi Gate, Israel’s central court in Occupied Jerusalem sentenced Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, to five months imprisonment, with the sentence set to begin on July 25 in the Ramle prison, known as Ayalon.

Reacting to the sentence the Deputy Head of the movement, Kamal Khatib, said the conviction was a “political decision” aimed at preventing Sheikh Raed Salah from playing his role in Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Addressing the Israeli public Khatib said, “Sheikh Salah’s absence, and his being in jail, will not prevent the continuation of his message; we will continue with the Sheikh’s cause and follow his path. Prisons will not prevent us fulfilling our duties toward Jerusalem and Al Aqsa [Mosque].”

Also, the head of the High Follow Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, Mohammad Zaydan, said in a press statement, “The court’s ruling against Sheikh Raed Salah is a political act aimed at opening the doors for the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa [Mosque].  It constitutes a continuation of Israel’s injustice and racist policies. We are witnessing a series of acts directed against the leaders of 1948 Palestine and Jerusalem, aimed at emptying the city of all its prominent figures.”

For their part, the Palestinian Islamic Scholars Association strongly condemned “the Occupation’s unjust decision to jail Sheikh Raed Salah” and deemed it a manifestation of Israel’s persistent arrogance that goes beyond all principles, values, and laws to achieve its illusions of establishing a Jewish temple on the ruins of the Holy Aqsa Mosque. The Association also accused Israel of seeking, by all means, to exclude the defenders of Al Aqsa and its courtyards and domes.