Sheikh Raed Salah
Sheikh Raed SalahReuters

A court fined Islamist Sheikh Raed Salah 9,000 shekels for disruptive behavior in the Allenby crossing to and from Jordan.

"A citizen does not have the liberty to try and interfere with police actions that take place legally, because his feelings or dignity were hurt,” the judge pronounced.

However, he added, “The dominant element in the defendant's behavior was not an attempt to rail against the police or confront them, but a storm of emotion he felt, based on the mistaken – but honest – belief, that his wife had been told to take off her clothes during the search.”

Salah and his wife had been returning from a visit to Jordan when the incident occurred. His wife was searched, and Salah interfered with the police officers' work.

The judge did not activate an existing suspended sentence against Salah for previous offenses, but extened the period in which it can be activated.

The judge said that the circumstances of the event and the fact that Raed is not the only one to blame for the way the incident developed, are good enough reasons not to activate the suspended sentence.