Israel Renews Travel Ban Against Sheikh Raed Salah

Israel's Interior Minister Gild Erdan on Wednesday renewed a travel ban against Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement inside Israel, for the third time in a row, the movement said.



"Israel's security arms issued an order for maintaining the travel ban against Sheikh Salah," the Islamic Movement inside Israel added on its website, noting that the ban would be in effect until January 9.



Salah, a Palestinian who lives in northern Israel, is an outspoken opponent of Israel's settlement construction policies.



Some observers have said that the travel ban renewal against the man aims to tighten the noose around him against the background of his defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque.



The Islamic Movement said in the travel ban renewal notice, which was signed by the Israeli Interior Minister himself and handed Salah, Israel wrote that Salah's travel abroad would harm its security.



Salah, meanwhile, was unfazed by the ban, saying in comment that Israeli authorities would never succeed in laying a siege around his voice, even if they managed to lay a siege around his body.



"My voice is the voice of every free man in the Arab world," Salah was "ed by the website of the movement as saying. "This voice cannot be silenced or broken because it is the voice of right against the Israeli occupation," he added. 



Describing the Israeli move as "racist", Salah added that Israel was mistaken in believing that it could break the will of the Palestinian people or defeat Palestinians living in Jerusalem.



This is the third time the travel ban against Salah is renewed. The ban was renewed for six months in June. It was initially issued for a month earlier.



Alaa Rimawi



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