Sheikh Raed Salah leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine announced on Sunday that he is starting a hunger strike in an Israeli jail.
Lawyer Mohamed Ighbariyeh said Sheikh Salah updated him on his decision to go on an open-ended hunger strike in protest at being mistreated and locked up in an isolated cell in the Israeli Rimon jail.
Head of the prisoners’ committee in the Joint Arab List MK Osama Saadi denounced the Israeli crackdowns against Sheikh Salah both inside and outside prison.
“Such oppressive measures against Sheikh Salah while he is behind prison bars are just unacceptable” said Saadi.
He spoke out against Israeli visit-bans slapped against Sheikh Salah.
Saadi expressed his solidarity with Sheikh Salah saying his hunger strike is legitimate.
He added that Israel’s prosecution of Sheikh Salah has nothing to do with truth and justice and is rather an embodiment of an Israeli preplanned policy against Palestinian leaders and activists in 1948 occupied Palestine.
He urged the Israeli occupation to immediately cease persecution and mistreatment of Sheikh Salah who has always raised his voice to defend the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian people.
Sheikh Salah was kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces on May 8 after an Israeli occupation court sentenced him to nine months in jail on allegations of incitement to anti-occupation protests in a Friday sermon known as Wadi al-Jouz sermon that dates back to 2007.
Last October an Israeli court turned down a petition lodged by the Mezan Center for Human Rights to end Salah’s isolation.
On November 16 2015 the Israeli occupation government blacklisted the Islamic Movement in 1948 occupied territories as an “outlawed” group.
