Sheikh Raed Salah, who was imprisoned last year for inciting terrorism, was released from prison on Monday after completing his sentence.
Residents of Umm al-Fahm gathered at the entrance of the city carrying flags of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Salah is the leader of the Northern Branch of the movement which has been outlawed by the Israeli government since 2015.
#فيديو اللحظات الأولى لوصول الشيخ رائد صلاح عقب الإفراج عنه واستقبال الأهالي له في مدينة أم الفحم pic.twitter.com/Rcpc50PGao
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) December 13, 2021
Salah was convicted of inciting terrorism in 2019 after praising, expressing sympathy with and encouraging terrorism on multiple occasions, including in connection to a shooting attack in which two Border Police officers were killed near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Salah had claimed that the charges against him were "far from the truth." In an interview with Middle East Eye shortly before he began his prison sentence, Salah claimed that the court had "criminalized" a "set of values," including verses from the Koran and "Palestinian folklore," and had inaccurately interpreted statements made in Arabic.
Hamas welcomed Salah's release on Monday, calling him "a symbol of struggle and sacrifice in our Palestinian people."