Mon 13 December 2021:
According to his defense counsel, Israeli authorities released Palestinian icon Sheikh Raed Salah on Monday after holding him for 17 months.
“Salah has been released and is on his way home,” Omar Khamaysi told Anadolu Agency .
Hundreds of Palestinians waved green banners outside Megiddo jail in northern Israel to welcome Salah.
The Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, Israel’s top representative body for Arab residents, is also preparing a reception for Salah in his birthplace of Umm al-Fahm.
With Takbeeraat, chants, sweets and petals.. A high-spirited welcome for Sheikh Raed Salah in his hometown of Umm Al-Fahm after his release from Israeli incarceration. #RaedSalah #رائد_صلاح pic.twitter.com/01BByGYTgq
— Masjid al Aqsa (@firstqiblah) December 13, 2021
“Sheikh Salah was unfairly imprisoned and paid the price of preserving the principles of our people and defending the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the committee said in a statement on Sunday.
Salah, the leader of the northern branch of Islamic Movement in Israel, was detained in August 2017 and indicted for alleged incitement over his criticism of the erection of metal detectors at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The moment when Palestinian icon of Al-Aqsa, Sheikh Raed Salah, embraces freedom after serving 16 months of solitary confinement under harsh conditions inside Israeli occupation jails. pic.twitter.com/odREseST9A
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) December 13, 2021
He was sentenced to 28 months in prison by an Israeli court. He served 11 months in jail, half of which was in solitary confinement before he was moved to house arrest.
After two years under house arrest, in August 2020, Salah began a 17-month jail term on incitement charges.
A staunch defender of the Palestinian rights, Salah has staged a number of protests against Israeli policies and campaigned against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
Sheikh #Raed_Salah , leader of the Islamic Movement in The occupied Palestinian interior , celebrates with his supporters following his release from a jail in the city of Umm al-Fahm. pic.twitter.com/DXdmewqA2k
— محمود (أبو زياد) (@AbuZiad486) December 13, 2021
Since 2015, Israel has barred Salah from leaving the country for apparently “national security” grounds.
Salah’s Islamic Movement in Israel, which he formed in 1971, has been declared illegal by Israeli authorities since 2015. In recent years, the same police have arrested Salah and closed down dozens of organizations, including a number of charities, on suspicion of having ties to his group.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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