An Israeli court on Monday sentenced the head of the outlawed northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, to 28 months in prison for "inciting to terror" in a series of speeches he made after a Palestinian attack in July 2017 killed two Israeli policemen at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
Salah has denounced the charges against him as false and said following his sentencing that all the proceedings in the case were far from the truth. Salah has had repeated run-ins with Israeli authorities. In August 2017, he was arrested at his home in the city of Umm Al Fahm in northern Israel before being convicted on charges of inciting violence, which he denied. The Islamic Movement in Israel, which Salah founded in 1971, has an estimated 20,000 members and has been outlawed by the Israeli authorities since 2015.
It has broad support among Palestinian citizens of Israel and has also gained popularity by running a network of charities, kindergartens, health clinics, and social services - a model that has been established elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond by the Muslim Brotherhood group, which has been banned in several Arab countries. Members of Israel's Palestinian minority, who make up about 20 percent of the population, have citizenship but face widespread discrimination in terms of housing, social services, and employment opportunities.
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