Police: Indict Salah Again for Incitement

Police on Thursday recommended filing charges against Northern Islamic Movement head Ra’ed Salah. The charges surround Salah’s advocating and promoting incitement to violence against Israelis, as well as managing and encouraging others to join the Movement, which was declared illegal several years ago.

Salah is currently serving a sentence for incitement in an Israeli prison, and apparently has been promoting the Movement from his prison cell, via interviews and articles. He was questioned by police on the matter several days ago. Last April his sentence was reduced from 11 to nine months, and he is due to be released in the coming days. Police said they would seek to keep him in custody while they investigate the new charges against him, if he is indicted again.

Salah was arrested and jailed for incitement in October 2015, as tensions rose in Yerushalayim. Salah was accused of spreading rumors and inciting Arabs over the supposed Israeli “takeover” of Har HaBayis. As a result of that incitement, the state charged, Salah inspired dozens of Arabs to carry out terror attacks against Israel. The Movement, said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was one of the three “pillars,” along with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, of incitement against Jews and Israelis.

Salah was jailed again last year after he advocated attacking Jews who went to the Kosel, encouraging his followers to throw rocks and riot. “We are aware of attempts by Salah to fuel the tensions on Har HaBayis ahead of Pesach,” Netanyahu said at the time. “He is a one-man powder keg. I request that security officials and the Jstice Minister take action to keep him away [from Yerushalayim]. He should be in jail already.”