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Haniyeh slams prison sentence for Sheikh Raed Salah

February 11, 2020 at 10:53 am

Ismail Haniyeh press conference in Gaza, on 10 November 2019 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Ismail Haniyeh has slammed the prison sentence imposed by an Israeli court on Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in the occupation state.

“We have received with anger the news of a 28-month prison sentence handed by an Israeli court to Sheikh Raed Salah,” said the Hamas leader. “This is part of a continuous series of arrests and banning orders to stop the Sheikh from entering Al Aqsa Mosque.”

Haniyeh claimed that the actions against Sheikh Salah are intended to prepare for the implementation of Donald Trump’s so-called deal of the century in Jerusalem and the Triangle area inside the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948. “It is also aimed at silencing all voices who defend the Arab and Islamic identity of Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem and reject Israeli crimes and Judaisation plans.”

Voicing the Islamic Resistance Movement’s solidarity with Sheikh Salah and his family, Haniyeh said that he and his colleagues deplore and condemn the “unfair prison sentence”, which highlights how grave the plot against the Palestinians is. “We continue to reject all crimes and measures which are being taken against the Palestinians and their inalienable rights.”

Nevertheless, he concluded, “We stress that this prison sentence motivates the Palestinian people to go on with their fight against the Israeli occupation, using all possible means to foil the conspiracies of the Zionist state.”

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