Raed Salah - 2011 Arrest in The United Kingdom

2011 Arrest in The United Kingdom

On Tuesday, June 28, 2011 after entering the country and making an appearance at a meeting in Leicester, Salah was detained in London. He had been due to attend a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting in the House of Commons on the following evening, attended by Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Yasmin Qureshi and Richard Burden. His request to be released on bail while awaiting the outcome of court proceedings despite the Home Office Secretary's decision to bar him from the country was granted on Friday, July 15. He was released on Monday, July 18, under strict conditions that include wearing an electronic tag, observing a night-time curfew, reporting to immigration officials, refraining from public-speaking and staying at the home of friend.

Palestinians in the UK, Israel and the Palestinian Territories accused the Israeli government of being behind the arrest. In a statement, Home Secretary Theresa May said, "I will seek to exclude an individual if I consider that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good, and the government makes no apologies for refusing people access to the UK if we believe that they might seek to undermine our society. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who seek to subvert our shared values."

Fatah spokesman, Ousama al Qawasami, has said that the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah in Britain will give Israel the green light on detention and deportation and is a decision in identification and congruity with Israeli policies of racial discrimination against Palestinians.

A judicial review of Britain's June arrest took place on September 30, 2011; the English High Court ruled that Salah was entitled to damages due to "wrongful detention". In response, Theresa May sought to ban Salah; a series of emails obtained reveal her correspondence with the Community Security Trust (CST), who consider Salah to be an anti-Semite. On October 26 an immigration tribunal concluded that May had been justified in her position. The tribunal stated that it is "satisfied that the appellant has engaged in the unacceptable behaviour of fostering hatred which might lead to intercommunity violence in the UK. We are satisfied that the appellant’s words and actions tend to be inflammatory, divisive, insulting and likely to foment tension and radicalism."

Salah successfully appealed the decision when a tribunal ruled that the grounds for expelling him or denying him freedom of speech in Britain were too weak and that there was no reason to believe he was a danger to British society.