RAED SALAH: ISRAELI COURT RULING WILL NOT DETER US

Al-Quds, 15 Muharram 1436/28 October 2015 (MINA) – Head of the Islamic Movement within the Green Line Sheikh Raed Salah stressed that the Israeli occupation of al-Aqsa Mosque will certainly come to an end.

He affirmed that Israeli repressive measures including sentencing him to 11 months in prison will never prevent Palestinian defense of the Mosque, The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Wednesday (28/10).

Sheikh Salah’s statements came shortly after an Israeli court handed him an 11-month jail sentence on Tuesday evening.

Israel’s threats to outlaw the Islamic Movement will never succeed to stop our defense of al-Aqsa Mosque, he added.

Al-Aqsa is an Islamic, Arab, and Palestinian property, Sheikh Salah stressed.

He also pointed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent statement, considering it a failed attempt to legalize Israeli occupation of al-Aqsa.

Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli court sentenced the leader of the Islamic Movement within the Green Line to 11 months in jail on charges of “incitement”.

The Israeli prosecution had originally demanded that the court should sentence Salah to a minimum of 16 months and a maximum of 42 months.

The case against Salah was initiated after a sermon he delivered in occupied Jerusalem in 2007 in which he decried “Israeli racist policies in Jerusalem,” and demanded that the Israeli government end its ban on Muslims to worship freely at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The Islamic Movement strongly condemned the Israeli court’s order, considering it a political decision.

It is a political decision that came as part of the Israeli government’s threats and political persecution against the Islamic Movement and Sheikh Salah, a spokesperson for the Movement said.(T/P008/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)