Israel briefly detains prominent Palestinian leader Raed Salah
Israeli police detained and interrogated Raed Salah, a prominent Palestinian religious and political leader, for several hours on Tuesday after raiding his home and office in northern Israel.
"Police raided Sheikh Salah’s home and took him to a police station for questioning," Khaled Zabarka, Salah's lawyer, told Anadolu agency.
The lawyer said that Israeli security forces raided the headquarters of the Spreading Peace Committee, which is led by Salah, and confiscated items.
The committee was set up to aid Palestinian citizens of Israel fight against violence and foster civil peace.
Salah's arrest came just one day after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issued an order for the property of the committee to be seized, on suspicion of affiliation with the Islamic Movement.
The northern branch of the Islamic Movement, formerly headed up by Salah, has been banned by Israel since 2015.
"We are trying to understand the reason behind this Israeli campaign,” Zabarka said.
"The Spreading Peace Committees are almost the only body in the Arab community that actively work to fight crime and violence."
Following Salah's arrest, several other members of his committee were also summoned by Israeli police, according to Al Jazeera.
Salah is known for his strong defence of Palestinian rights, including in relation to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
He was released from Israel's Megiddo prison in December 2021, after completing a 17-month sentence on incitement charges. Salah spent all of his sentence in solitary confinement.
He served a nine-month sentence on similar charges in 2017, and told MEE in August 2020 that besides being imprisoned six times, he had been arrested too many times to count and endured days-long interrogations.
Israel had also put him under house arrest for three years under difficult conditions, including not being allowed any visitors.
"I go to prison in complete contentedness, joy and assurance; standing by my values, regretting nothing. I know that as soon as I enter prison, they will start working to build a new case against me and launch a new round of investigations," Salah told MEE shortly before he went to prison for the seventh time.
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