Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah. Photo: Stay Human via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court on Thursday convicted Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah of obstructing a police officer in the line of duty.

Salah was accused of interfering with police officers while they were questioning his wife when he accompanied her to enter Israel from Jordan in 2011, via the Allenby Bridge border crossing. The court, which ruled that Salah “sought to frustrate the search of his wife because to him it represented an affront to his honor,” is set to issue its sentencing at a later date.

In March, Salah was already sentenced to eight months in prison after the same Jerusalem court found him guilty of inciting violence in a speech he gave at a 2007 Friday prayer service in eastern Jerusalem. During that speech, Salah urged the Muslim world to launch a “bloody intifada” against Israel and called on participants to become “shahids” (martyrs) for the Palestinian cause.