Israeli Muslim leader starts nine-month prison term

An Israeli Muslim leader started Sunday his nine-month term in jail for "inciting" riots in East Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound in 2007, Israel's Prison Service said.

Accompanied by dozens of supporters, Raed Salah arrived at the Ohaley Keidar Prison in southern Israel, where he will serve his sentence.

"I enter (prison) relaxed," he was quoted as saying by the Ynet Hebrew news site. He vowed to continue the struggle against Israel's attempts to undermine Muslim sovereignty at the al-Aqsa Mosque.

"If the day comes in which we are to choose between prison and to give up on Jerusalem and al-Aqsa, we will welcome prison. We will sacrifice our lives for al-Aqsa," he said.

Salah, 58, is the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which was outlawed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet in November 2015 for "inciting violence."

Netanyahu accused the movement of encouraging a wave of violent Palestinian uprising, which began in mid-September 2015 and has claimed the lives of at least 203 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.

Last month, Israel's Supreme Court rejected Salah's appeal against his conviction but reduced his sentence from 11 to nine months in prison.

His term follows a 2013 conviction for "inciting violence" and "inciting racism" during a rally against Israeli construction near the al-Aqsa compound in 2007.

In the rally, he called on "all Muslims and Arabs to start an uprising in support of holy Jerusalem and the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque."

In ensuing clashes with the police, several officers were wounded.

The clashes were triggered by fears that Israel is seeking to lift a long-held ban on Jewish prays at the compound. The hill-top site is holy to both Muslims and Jews, though Jews are allowed to visit there but not to pray.

This is not the first time his hardline Islamist and anti-occupation stances placed Salah in trouble with the Israeli authorities.

In 2010, he was sentenced to ten months in prison on charges of rioting and assaulting a police officer. In 2003, he was convicted amid a plea bargain for contacting a foreign agent and providing services to the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas. Endit