Sheikh Raed Salah in court
Sheikh Raed Salah in courtYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Interior Minister Silvan Shalom on Wednesday evening signed an order prohibiting Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement, and his deputy from leaving the country.

Shalom signed the order after he was convinced that Salah leaving Israel could harm state security. The order is valid for thirty days.

The Islamic Movement is actually banned in several Muslim states - in part, due to links to the Muslim Brotherhood - and has been repeatedly involved in several incitement-laced activities, including violent "Nakba Day" protests, calls for an "intifada", and rioting on the Temple Mount. 

Salah himself has labeled Israeli leaders “terrorists” and “enemies of Allah” in a speech to Muslims in Be’er Sheva, and was also jailed for five months in 2010 for spitting at an Israeli police officer. 

He was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court in November 2013 with inciting to violence, but acquitted on inciting to racism. In 2014, he was given eight months in jail and an additional eight months on condition.

Salah tried to flee Israel through Turkey in an attempt to escape the legal proceedings against him on Wednesday evening, but was detained at the airport because of the detention warrant.

On Wednesday morning, the Jerusalem District Court convened to examine the appeal of Salah's 11-month prison sentence, originally imposed on him in 2007.

Salah's trial followed a vow from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to blacklist the Islamic Movement.