Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sheikh Raed Salah detained in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli police on Tuesday detained Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah in Jerusalem while he was visiting an East Jerusalem neighborhood, saying he was suspected of committing arson.

Israel's police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Salah was suspected of setting fire to a forest area in southern Israel two weeks ago.

Salah's advisor Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha said the sheikh was detained after visiting a sit-in protest tent in Silwan, the site of frequent home demolitions.

Though he has been periodically barred from Jerusalem, Salah regularly visits families with home demolition and eviction orders in a show of support.

Salah was released from an Israeli jail in December, after serving five months for allegedly spitting at an Israeli policeman in February 2007, a charge he has always denied.

On his release from prison, he said he was the victim of political persecution.

He has been detained on a number of occasions.

Abu Teir: Salah arrest aimed at silencing Jerusalemites
[ 23/02/2011 - 07:13 PM ]


RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Jerusalem's banished MP Mohammed Abu Teir condemned the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah, calling it a new stab at ”silencing the voice of truth that defends Jerusalem”.
Salah, the leader  of the Islamic Movement in 1948-occupied Palestine, was arrested in the city's Sheikh Jarrah district Tuesday heading back from a festival in Silwan's Al-Bustan neighborhood.
Abu Teir told the Palestinian Information Center that Israel is seeking to “absent” Sheikh Salah for his role in exposing Israel's crimes against Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.
The exiled MP stressed that the continued persecution of Salah and all other figures defending Palestinian rights would not deter defense efforts in Jerusalem, the Aqsa Mosque, and the Islamic and national constants, but would only motivate more efforts ”until all rights are returned to their people.”
Abu Teir called on the Arabs and Muslims to help Palestinians living in Jerusalem and 1948-occupied Palestine defend the city's holy sites from Israeli Judaization plots, and called upon Jerusalemites to ”firmly and strongly” be ready to stand up against and expose new transgression.