(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Participants organized a “silent” rally to protest the British government's attempt to silence the Palestinian leader and deny him access to his legal team.
Some of the protestors were wearing masks bearing pro Palestinian slogans as others carried placards in support of the Palestinian people some of them reading “we are all Raed Salah”, “free Palestine” and “no for double standards”.
The protestors also called on the government to take action on the Israeli regime for its illegal acts holding placards that read “arrest the real criminals”.
Salah was arrested based on an order by Home Secretary Theresa May after visiting London on an invitation by the research institute, Middle East Monitor.
The rally was called by several non-governmental organizations including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, British Muslims Initiative and the Stop the War Campaign.
Several anti-Zionist Jews present in the rally told IRNA that claims by the British government and media about Salah's anti-Semitism are false.
IRNA also quoted a Palestine Solidarity Campaign activist as saying Salah's arrest has been a political move as he has travelled to Britain to deliver a few peaceful lectures.
“The British government has surely made the arrest under pressure from the Israeli regime and Zionist lobbies… the Palestinian political activist who is a resident of the occupied territories has been arrested to please Israel [regime] so that he cannot convey his message to the British,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hannan Chehata from the Middle East Monitor told IRNA that Salah has been transferred from an immigration detention center to a prison which will “disrupt” his legal efforts to appeal his deportation ruling.
The UK Border Agency claimed that Salah was not authorized to enter Britain, a move that came after the right-wing media, including Daily Mail and Evening Standard launched a tarring campaign against him, calling for his detention.
This comes as a number of civil activists and luminaries have put their names under a letter, condemning Salah's detention and calling on the government to release him.
The letter said Israeli lobbies want to prevent the world public opinion to access “first-hand” accounts of the “discriminations” against the Arab residents of the occupied territories.
The Friends of Al-Aqsa campaign group has also prepared an electronic petition addressed to the Home Secretary calling for the “immediate release of Shaykh Raed Salah” and dropping of his "deportation charges”.
The petition also calls on Theresa May to “allow him [Salah] to refute and/or challenge the accusation levelled against him in court”.
Salah has been one of the activists who was arrested by Israeli forces last year for involvement in the Gaza aid flotilla.
He has been a vocal critic of Israeli excavations near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Bait-ul Muqaddas and the regime's development plans in the area.
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