Israel raids home and office of prominent Palestinian’s leader Raed Salah [Getty]
Israeli police detained and interrogated Raed Salah, a prominent Palestinian religious leader and head of the Spreading Peace Committee, for several hours on Tuesday after raiding his home in northern Israel.
Salah was interrogated for several hours before being released on Tuesday, following a widespread operation involving over 1,500 Israeli police officers, including Border Guard units, targeting multiple locations in the city of Umm al-Fahm.
The arrest came after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, wanted by ICC for war crimes in Gaza, signed an order to seize the assets of the committee, citing alleged links to the banned northern branch of the Islamic Movement, an alleged Islamist group that Salah previously led.
However, Salah and his supporters vehemently reject these claims, accusing Israel of using political persecution to undermine Palestinian efforts at self-organised civil resistance.
The Israeli occupation police detain Sheikh Raed Salah after raiding his home in Um Al Fahim town in the 1948 occupied territories. pic.twitter.com/cNFR0gx6QN
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) January 28, 2025
Salah’s lawyer, Khaled Zabarka, described the police’s actions as part of an ongoing campaign to stifle the efforts of groups like the Spreading Peace Committee, which are actively addressing crime and violence in Palestinian society.
“We are trying to understand the reason behind this Israeli campaign,” Zabarka said. “The Spreading Peace Committees are almost the only body in the Arab community that actively works to fight crime and violence.”
Following Salah’s arrest, other members of the committee were also detained, including Tawfiq Muhammad Jabarin, secretary of the Qatari Peace Disclosure Committee, Maan Ighbariya from Umm al-Fahm, and Sheikh Khairi Iskandar, a prominent figure in the Peace Disclosure Committees.
In a statement, the committee condemned the raids as an unjustified provocation aimed at suppressing initiatives designed to tackle violence and foster civil peace in Arab communities in Israel.
The Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel expressed “deep concern” over the Israeli government’s increasingly aggressive stance toward Palestinian activism.
The group branded the raids as part of a broader effort to intimidate those working to address the rampant violence plaguing Palestinian communities, where crime rates have soared in recent years.
“The government’s campaign against Sheikh Salah and his supporters is not about combating crime, but about silencing those who stand up for our rights,” said Muhammad Baraka, head of the Follow-Up Committee.
Umm al-Fahm’s Mayor, Dr Samir Mahameed also slammed the move and insisted that Salahis was “not a criminal” and demanded Israeli forces cease its attacks on the group.
The Spreading Peace Committee has been a key player in the fight against the rise in violence and organised crime in Palestinian neighbourhoods, providing an alternative to both Israeli authorities and criminal gangs.
Sheikh Salah, who has been a vocal defender of Palestinian rights, has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times in the past, including serving a 17-month sentence for “incitement to terrorism” in solitary confinement, a charge related to his political activism.
In a statement, the committee’s leadership has vowed to continue resisting Israeli authorities’ crackdown. “We are not the ones on trial here; the Israeli government is,” the group said.
