Itongadol.- Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, on Thursday was convicted of incitement to violence and acquitted of racist incitement by the Jerusalem Magistrate\’s Court.
The court said that as part of Friday prayer services on February 16, 2007 around 10:00 a.m., Salah arrived in Jerusalem, giving a speech in the Wadi Joz neighborhood to around one thousand people and significant assembled media.
Salah\’s speech overlapped in time with various work being done around the Temple Mount which various Arab groups objected to in the series of conflicts that erupt from time to time surrounding archeological work, repairs and new building neat the Temple Mount.
Salah gave the speech in that location as opposed to on the Temple Mount, having been banned by a previous court ruling from approaching within 150 meters of the Old City.
In the speech Salah said, "Now we are in this blessed and pure place, a place of blessing and purity, if not for the disturbances and obstruction that has befallen us by the Israeli conquest, which will be removed please God, just as other such occupations were removed in the past."
Salah referred repeatedly to the merit of "shahidim," generally interpreted in context as martyrs who were killed or killed themselves resisting Israeli or other non-Islamic enemies.
Immediately following Salah\’s speech, the audience erupted into public disorder, including stone throwing against the nearby police, injuring three border police.
Based on his words and the immediate impact his words had on the listening crowd, the court convicted Salah of incitement to violence.
The court said that while "freedom of speech is a supreme value in a democracy, still it is not a freedom without limits and the state is obligated to defend its citizens and security forces from violence or terror."
The court continued that, "therefore, the state cannot endure statements which call for harming the state and its security forces."
The prosecution also said that Salah made references to blood-libel against Jews as the basis for a separate claim against him for racist incitement.
In his speech, Salah said that he and other Muslims never made their Ramadan bread with the blood of children, adding, "whoever wants a more comprehensive explanation, should ask what happened to some of the European children whose blood was mixed with flour for use in holy bread."
Salah\’s lawyer successfully convinced the court on this point that Salah\’s words on the blood libel issue were potentially open to multiple interpretations, including to the Christian crusaders killing of children in Europe.
As a result, the court convicted Salah of incitement to violence, but not racist incitement.
13/09/2024