The arrest of the head of the illegal Islamic Movement’s northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, was extended by three days on suspicion of incitement, Ha’aretz reported.
According to the police, during the funeral of the three terrorists from Umm al-Fahm who had murdered two Israeli Border Guard officers on the Temple Mount last month, the sheikh delivered a sermon in which he praised the murder and incited his listeners to launch the “war on the Temple Mount.”
After the police representative presented Salah’s statements to the Magistrate’s Court in Rishon Letzion, alleging they constituted incitement, the judge said that these were verses from the Quran. “I find a similarity here to the funeral service of another religion,” the judge noted, “but it does not count as incitement.”
The police representative replied that the police and the State Prosecutor’s Office believe that Salah’s statements did contain incitement. “We have a letter from the State Prosecutor’s Office with quotes from the Sheikh which speak volumes about incitement,” the representative said, adding that “we believe that his sermons led to terror attacks as well as attempted attacks after the Temple Mount murders.”
In his decision, the judge said that he was extending Salah’s remand by three days due to “a reasonable presumption that his release would endanger public safety.”
According to the judge, Salah’s statements included “different things, including one sentence or another that fits the definition of a reasonable assumption of incitement.” The judge stressed: “I say this very carefully because these are offenses which touch the constitutional right [to free speech].”
Salah’s attorney told the court that his client’s statements did not constitute incitement and called on the court to release him from detention. “I think that if the court accepts the state’s position it would in reality be accepting the blurring between the permissible and the forbidden, which is dangerous.”
The defense attorney suggested that his client’s quotes may sound like incitement “to Israeli ears, but that’s exactly the place of freedom of expression. You can also say outrageous things that can bring about change,” he said.
The City of Umm al-Fahm – where Salah had served three terms as mayor – issued a statement condemning his arrest and claiming that it was “political persecution and continuation of the policy of administrative detentions aimed at intimidating the Arab public.”
MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) Arab List) referred to Salah’s arrest as a “provocative and political move.”
Earlier today, we published a few choice quotes from earlier speeches by Salah, which include his description of how the Jews have traditionally used the blood of gentile children to bake their matzos.