An indictment will be filed on Thursday in the Ramla Magistrate's Court against Sheikh Yusuf Albaz, the Imam of the Great Mosque in Lod, after he published an inciting post against police officers.
In the post published by Albaz, he referred to an excerpt from a film in which two people are seen murdering traffic cops in revenge for being detained, writing: "The best way to deal with injustice."
Following the criticism of him, the sheikh published another post in which he wrote, "Who would have believed that MKs would be so intimidated by an American film and a person who expresses his opinion on the film. We will wait and see if it's some lunatics or...bankruptcy of the country. Time will tell the truth."
After Albaz was arrested, Justice Erez Melamed of the Magistrate’s Court ruled that Albaz’s remarks were not "legitimate criticism but incitement, using social media networks and turning them into a tool for escalating hatred and spreading evil and fear."
"Freedom of expression does not mean a call for violence and does not mean granting permission to publish inciting, violent and offensive content. After the waves of hatred, violence and street bullying by Arabs and Jews - it is the court's duty to uproot these phenomena," the judge said.