By Hedaya al-Saeedi
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Palestinians on Thursday demonstrated outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City to protest the ongoing solitary confinement of Palestinian resistance icon Raed Salah by the Israeli authorities.
“We’re here today to show solidarity with Raed Salah, the Sheikh of Jerusalem, who defends Palestine, its people and its holy places,” Ahmed Bahr, deputy president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said.
“Salah has exposed the criminality of Israel, which arrested him and now keeps him in solitary confinement,” Bahr added.
In April, Salah — leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel’s northern branch — was sentenced to nine months in solitary confinement by Israel’s Supreme Court for alleged “incitement to violence” for a 2007 speech he gave in East Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, an Israeli court in the southern city of Beersheba rejected a legal request to remove Salah from solitary confinement.
Speaking at Thursday’s protest in Gaza City, Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, head of the Islamic Movement, described Salah’s ongoing confinement as “unjust”.
In a statement issued on behalf of Palestinian political factions, Taleb Khader Habib, leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, called on the Arab and Muslim nation to stand by Salah.
For more than two decades, Salah has led the charge in defense of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, leading to frequent harassment and arrest by the Israeli authorities.
Salah was born in 1958 in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel. He later studied Islamic Law at the University of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
He served as mayor of Umm al-Fahm for three consecutive terms from 1987 to 2001.
In 1996, Salah was elected leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, which is known for holding daily demonstrations at the Al-Aqsa — Islam’s third holiest site — to protest violations of the iconic mosque by the Israeli authorities.
Last November, Israel’s security cabinet outlawed the movement, accusing it of “incitement” and “propaganda”.
“The Islamic Movement is rooted in the conscience of the Palestinian people,” Salah declared at the time. “It cannot be stopped by racist decisions and verdicts.”
