The Haifa District Court rejected July 16 an appeal submitted by Sheikh Raed Salah, chief of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, against his prison sentence. The court maintained the ruling of 28 months in jail. Salah has already spent 11 months in detention, thus is expected to serve now 17 months, starting Aug. 16.

In November 2019, the Haifa Magistrates Court found Salah guilty of incitement to terror and of membership in an outlawed organization. And in February, the court sentenced him to 28 months in prison.

Salah was convicted for expressing on several occasions sympathy with terrorists or encouraging terrorism, including a sermon he delivered after the July 2017 terror attack by three Israeli Arabs at the Jerusalem Lion Gate outside the Temple Mount compound. Two Israeli police officers were killed in the attack. According to the verdict, Salah praised the “martyrs of Al-Aqsa,’’ and hailed their actions. Salah also gave a similar speech at a symbolic funeral held for the three gunmen in the city of Umm al-Fahm.

Already in 2015, Israel’s security Cabinet outlawed the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, accusing it of collaborating with Hamas. Following that decision, the Israeli Police seized the group's property and closed its offices. Later, the police also shut down 17 nonprofit organizations and movements affiliated with the group.