An Israeli court yesterday extended the remand of a firebrand Islamic cleric accused of inciting violence in connection with last month’s deadly tensions over a Jerusalem holy site, his lawyer said.
Raed Salah, arrested on August 15, had his remand extended until Thursday, Khaled Zabarka told AFP.
The 58-year-old Arab Israeli is accused of inciting violence and terrorism as well as support for an illegal organisation.
Prosecutors told the court yesterday that they intend to file charges against Salah, Zabarka said.
Salah and his supporters call the accusations “political intimidation” intended to silent dissent.
His group, the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was outlawed in 2015 for incitement linked to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound.
Police say the allegations against Salah include a sermon he gave after a July 14 attack that killed two policemen near Haram al-Sharif, which includes the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock.
Violence erupted in and around the site after three Arab Israelis shot dead the two policemen before being killed by security forces.
Israel responded to the July 14 deadly shootings by installing metal detectors at the entrance to the holy site, used as a staging point for the attack.
For nearly two weeks, worshippers refused to submit to the checks and staged mass prayers in surrounding streets.
Ensuing protests and clashes left seven Palestinians dead, while three Israelis were stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement by a Palestinian assailant.
The crisis abated when Israel removed the detectors.
The Jerusalem site is the third-holiest in Islam.
It is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Salah’s latest arrest follows his release from prison in January after serving a nine-month sentence on similar allegations.

Fisherman nets message in a bottle in isolated Gaza
For Palestinian fisherman Jihad al-Soltan, it was a surprise summer catch — a message in a bottle that he netted off a Gaza beach.
It had bobbed its way in the Mediterranean for nearly 800km from the Greek island of Rhodes, placed in the water by a vacationing British couple in July.
“We are currently on holiday on Rhodes and we would love to know how far this bottle got, even if it’s just the next beach,” said the letter inside, signed “Faithfully, Zac and Beth”.
By replying to the e-mail address they enclosed, Soltan discovered the two were Bethany Wright, a university student, and her boyfriend, Zac Marriner.
“Hello, Thank you for picking up this bottle. As a reward here are some magic flowers,” the couple wrote in their letter.
By the time the bottle reached Gaza’s shores last week, the flowers had wilted.
But Soltan said yesterday he was buoyed by the thought that currents could carry a carefree message into troubled waters under Israeli naval blockade and fishing zone restrictions — measures Israel says are necessary to prevent arms smuggling by Gaza’s hostile Hamas rulers.
“As a fisherman I felt this letter travelled through borders and international waters without restrictions while we as fishermen are unable to go beyond six miles,” he said. “I hope one day we would become as free as this bottle was.”

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