Oh, look who has come out to support Raed Salah.
At a Gaza Legislative Council solidarity rally for the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, who is detained in the U.K., Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Salah is a symbol of the Palestinian presence in occupied Palestine since 1948.
Haniyeh added that Salah expresses Palestinian desires and aspirations, especially regarding Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque, and therefore harming him harms the entire Palestinian people and free men everywhere.
Haniyeh condemned British support of the occupation, and called on human rights organizations to work to free Salah, saying that he is “a messenger of freedom, respect, and human rights.”
Here is another reaction from Hamas:
…an article in the Hamas daily Felesteen claimed that the arrest exposed Britain’s “true face” and showed it was not a genuine democracy. According to the article, the current British Prime Minister “was endowed with a large measure of hatred and racism…more than his predecessor…who caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.” It also accused Britain of persecuting “the oppressed,” instead of “atoning” for having caused “a cancerous entity [i.e., Israel] to be planted in the heart of the Islamic world”.
The terrorists of Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not happy either:
Dozens of Palestinian Islamic Jihad activists demonstrated in front of the British Cultural Centre in Gaza City to express support for Raed Salah after his arrest. Khader Habib, a senior figure in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, accused the British government of capitulating to the pressure of the “Jewish lobby,” saying that Britain had committed another crime by arresting Raed Salah, after having “given the Jews a ‘national homeland’ in Palestine.” He said that the demonstration was only the first step in the organization’s response to the arrest.
Salah is a good friend of Hamas. Here’s Khaled Meshaal of Hamas Damascus saluting Salah when he was released from another spell in prison in 2010:
Khaled Mishaal, the political bureau chairman of Hamas, on Sunday extended warmest congratulations to Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, for his release from Israeli jail.
A statement by Hamas said that Mishaal extended his congratulations in his name and on behalf of all members of the political bureau and cadres and supporters of Hamas and the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in general.
Just last month Hamas named a football field in Gaza after Salah.
Inaugurating a new soccer field in Beit Hanoun, named after Islamic Movement in Israel northern branch leader Raed Salah, Hamas Prime Minister Isma’il Haniya said that the field bears the name of a great Palestinian leader.
The Hamas UK support network has also been mobilised.
For example, Zaher Al-Birawi, who was to be one of Mr Salah’s hosts in the UK, attended the demonstration for Salah at Downing Street on Monday.
Here’s Birawi right next to Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on one of Viva Palestina’s Hamas support missions in Gaza. Birawi has been a key operative on the convoys. On that occasion, Haniyeh hailed him and his fellows from Viva Palestina and the Turkish Islamist charity IHH for “your jihad”.
Who else was at the demonstration at Downing Street on Monday? Haitham Al-Haddad, a horrible Hamas enthusiast:
And Neturei Karta:
Extremists think having Neturei Karta on board gives them some kind of defence against charges of antisemitism. This is ludicrous. Neturei Karta is a tiny and reviled sect. They are themselves nasty extremists who help Hamas and have gone so far as to attend Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial festival in Iran.
Naturally Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was at the demonstration too.
Corbyn has said he will help the challenge to Salah’s exclusion order.
When will he be thrown out of the Labour Party?
Lord Ahmed needs to get the boot too. He has promoted all sorts of extremists for years on end. He is also one of the “honorary advisers” of Middle East Monitor and booked a room in Westminster for a meeting featuring Salah.
Hamas has had a great run in the UK. It will only come to an end if people learn from the Raed Salah affair and take action against the extremists, especially when the latter and their promoters are in the British left’s own ranks.
