Israel indicts Islamic leader Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib

The Israeli Magistrate’s Court in Nazareth yesterday indicted Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy chairman of the Islamic Movement in Israel and a member of the Arab Follow-Up Committee, and extended his detention until Sunday.

The public prosecution filed charges against Sheikh Al-Khatib accusing him of “incitement to terrorism, violence, and identifying with a terrorist organisation” in reference to the Islamic Movement which was outlawed by Israel in 2015.

One of Al-Khatib’s lawyers, Omar Khamaisi, said the Palestinian citizen of Israel could be given a jail term of up to 22 years.

On 14 May, Israeli forces arrested Sheikh Al-Khatib in his hometown of Kafr Kanna amid protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel against the occupation state’s planned forced expulsion of Palestinians in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacks on unarmed worshippers and the subsequent onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Palestinian activists and political leaders demonstrated outside the court in Nazareth against Al-Khatib detention and trial.

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