Palestine’s Raed Salah begins 9-month prison term

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.