Radical cleric, former MK detained while visiting Palestinian hunger striker
Raed Salah, Mohammad Barakeh reportedly behaved in a disorderly manner at hospital; police raid offices allegedly tied to Salah’s outlawed group
An extremist cleric and a former Knesset member were briefly detained by police on Thursday, apparently after visiting the hospital bed of a Palestinian hunger striker in Afula, in the Lower Galilee.
Police said Raed Salah, the radical leader of a recently outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, was arrested after hospital staff filed a complaint over his behavior. Meanwhile Mohammad Barakeh, a former lawmaker who chairs the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, was taken in after refusing to leave the premises at the request of police.
The two were later released and instructed to refrain from returning to the hospital.
MK Yousef Jabareen of the Joint (Arab) List called Barakeh’s detainment “a provocative move that reeks of vindictiveness and efforts to silence dissent.”
Both Salah and Barakeh announced in recent days that they too would launch a hunger strike in solidarity with Mohammed al-Qiq, who has been refusing food for almost three months in protest of his detention in Israel. Security forces maintain that he was arrested and held without charge for his suspected link to the Hamas terror group.
Meanwhile, police raided two centers suspected of ties to Salah’s outlawed group, which the Israeli cabinet banned in November as an organization with terrorist links. Officers searched offices in Haifa and in Umm al-Fahm, saying they were enforcing the ban on the group. They confiscated computers and documents and detained three people.
Officials said the raids were unconnected to Salah’s detainment in Afula.
Salah’s group rejects the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and boycotts national elections on the grounds that they legitimize the Jewish state. Salah was sentenced late last year to 11 months in prison for incitement to violence and racism over an inflammatory sermon he delivered in 2007 in Jerusalem. He has appealed the sentence.
Al-Qiq on Tuesday rejected a compromise that would have seen him transferred to a hospital in East Jerusalem, saying he will only stop his fast if he is sent to a Palestinian medical facility.
Arrested and held by Israel without charge under administrative detention, al-Qiq is currently being treated at Emek Medical Center in Afula.
Al-Qiq’s lawyers had petitioned the High Court Monday for him to be transferred to a hospital in Ramallah, under Palestinian control.
But the court rejected the request and recommended he be sent to the Arab-run al-Maqased Hospital in Israeli-controlled East Jerusalem instead. It added the move would be “within the framework of the frozen administrative measures concerning him,” raising the possibility he could be detained again if he ends his hunger strike. Al-Qiq has refused to move to East Jerusalem.
The 33-year-old is reported to be at death’s door after 86 days of a hunger strike to protest his administrative detention by Israel. Administrative detention allows the state to hold suspects without trial for periods of six months, which can be renewed indefinitely.
The Shin Bet security service says al-Qiq was detained for terrorist activity on behalf of Palestinian terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.