Ra’am MK Meets With Sheikh Raed Salah

YERUSHALAYIM
Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, arrives after his release from Israeli prison in Umm al-Fahm, Dec. 13. (Flash90)

Ra’am MK Mazen Ghnaim met on Monday with Sheikh Raed Salah, who recently completed a prison term for inciting terrorism, sparking outrage from right-wing politicians.

Salah is the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which has been outlawed by Israel since 2015. He was convicted of inciting terrorism in 2019 after praising, expressing sympathy with and encouraging terrorism on multiple occasions, including in connection to a shooting attack in which two Border Police officers were killed near Har HaBayis.

Salah had claimed that the charges against him were “far from the truth.”

Hamas welcomed Salah’s release last week, calling him “a symbol of struggle and sacrifice in our Palestinian people.”

“[Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett and [Interior Minister Ayelet] Shaked’s coalition member, MK Mazen Ghnaim of Ra’am, met today with Raed Salah, who incited the murder of Israelis,” posted opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu in response to the meeting. “A government dependent on the Muslim Brotherhood is incapable of fighting terrorism and maintaining the security of Israeli citizens.”

Otmza Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir also responded to the meeting on Monday, posting: “The pilgrimage to the terrorist Raed Saleh continues and this time it is MK Mazen Ghnaim. When I say supporters of terrorism, I know what I am talking about.”

In July, Ghnaim told Radio MAKAN that his party would leave the coalition if Israel attacked Gaza, Lebanon or the religious sites of Christians and Muslims.

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