Sheikh Raed Salah. Photo: Wiki Commons.

JNS.org –Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah was sentenced to eight months in prison Tuesday, after the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court found him guilty of inciting violence.

Salah was indicted following a speech he gave in a 2007 Friday prayer service held in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, during which he had urged the Muslim world to launch a “bloody intifada” against Israel and called on participants to become “shahids” (martyrs) for the Palestinian cause.

“The sentence reflects society’s disgust with such expressions,” Judge Cjana Miriam Lomp noted in her ruling, according to Israel Hayom.

The Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office said it is currently mulling whether to appeal the sentence, which it argued was too lenient. “Such incitement for violence has the ability to bring about tremendous damage. It is not protected by freedom of speech,” a source in the prosecution said.