Salah arrested on suspicion of assaulting cops in Jerusalem
Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern front, was arrested on Monday along with his bodyguard and three others.

by Staff, Jerusalem Post
March 23, 2009

Sheikh Raed Salah
 

Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern front, was arrested on Monday along with his bodyguard and three other men after allegedly attempting to attack police officers during an illegal convention pertaining to the Palestinian Culture Festival in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Zahi Nugidat, spokesperson for the movement's northern front said that the arrest was "unacceptable."

"Salah's arrest is another step toward 'Judaizing' Jerusalem. Nobody broke the law, there was merely an intention to establish a popular committee to deal with declaring Jerusalem the capital of Palestinian culture," he said.

Salah, the former Umm el-Fahm mayor, was arrested in 2003 on charges of raising millions of dollars for Hamas, and was freed after two years in prison.

Jerusalem police on Saturday dispersed eight small east Jerusalem events organized by the Palestinian Authority as part of a Palestinian Culture Week aimed at declaring the city the "capital of Arab culture," police said.

The events were intended to emphasize the Palestinian claim to east Jerusalem.

Twenty people were arrested for allegedly organizing the events, which were disbanded on the order of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, who said they were illegal, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

No violence or injuries were reported in connection with any of the arrests.

Palestinian activists organized the events, as well as others in various West Bank cities, to celebrate the Arab League's designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for 2009.