RAMALLAH, West Bank, 30 January 2008 — Jerusalem’s Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, with incitement to violence and racism over a speech he gave a year ago in protest against Israeli excavations at Al-Magharebah Gate of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Israeli prosecution said that Salah accused the Jews, during his speech at the Feb. 16, 2007, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, of using children’s blood to bake bread. The prosecution added that Salah, addressing the 1,000-strong crowd, accused Israel of attempting to rebuild the Jewish temple on the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound while drenched in Arab blood. Following the speech and Friday prayers, the crowd began rioting and throwing stones at Israeli police.
Salah’s speech, according to the prosecution, constituted a “call to commit acts of violence and encouragement of acts of violence, which given the content and context, there was a real possibility that it could lead to acts of violence.”
In an interview with Ashams Radio, Salah said in response that, “I am willing to repeat before the court all the things I said at the Friday sermon in Wadi Joz or any other meeting with journalists.” “Our statements are the products of conviction, and I will not recant,” he continued.
Meanwhile, although a snowstorm expected in Jerusalem tonight and tomorrow, Israeli politicians, defense establishment, and the Jerusalem municipality are on high alert a day before the publication of final Winograd report on Lebanon’s war.
The committee concentrates on the final 60 hours of the war, during which Prime Minster Ehud Olmert ordered a ground offensive that cost Israel 35 soldiers’ lives — despite, or because of, the fact that a UN-brokered cease-fire was about to go into effect.
The report’s determination regarding Olmert’s decisions and performance during this period will be critical regarding Israel’s political future. Members of the Winograd Committee, investigating the failures of Israeli government and army during the July War on Lebanon, contacted the Olmert’s office and the Jerusalem mayor’s office and requested that they ensure that roads to the office and to the city’s International Convention Center, where the committee will hold its press conference, remain open today so as not to delay submission of the report.
Senior members of the Israeli defense establishment are fearful that harsh criticism of the Israeli Army in the report would hurt its image and lower motivation to serve, Army Radio reported.
“We have done a lot to implement the lessons learned during the (war),” an army official told the radio station on condition of remaining anonymous.
