Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, on Thursday paid a condolence visit to the mourning tent of the family of the Bedouin man who was killed during a Border Police operation in Rahat earlier this week.
An undercover officer from the Border Police said that he fired at the Bedouin, who was standing in front of him with a loaded pistol.
Salah was seen kissing the right hand of the man’s seven-year-old son and then told the mourners, "The victim is the victim of all of us, and (the slain) is not only the son of his father, his mother and his family, but is the son of us all."
The Kul al-Arab newspaper quoted Salah as saying, "We were and still are victims and are still accused by the official establishment of creating violence, but in fact we are victims of violence. In this case, the violence is not one person's violence but rather the violence of an establishment and of a media that protects him. "
Sheikh Salah stressed that "anyone who thinks that the language of demolition, bloodshed and land confiscation will cause us to reconsider our presence is wrong - and with all the pain and sadness, we promise ourselves to stay as long as the hyssop bush and olive tree exist."
Salah was jailed for incitement to terrorism and served a 16-month prison sentence before being released in December.
Salah has been arrested by Israel several times in the past on charges of incitement. The radical cleric served a nine-month jail sentence after being convicted of encouraging violent attacks and inciting racism in a 2007 sermon.
He has in the past 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.
The Israeli government outlawed the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, which Salah heads, in November of 2015.