RAMALLAH, January 20, 2016 (WAFA) – A Palestinian committee monitoring detainees’ affairs Wednesday said Israel has detained a total of 130 Palestinians over social media posts in 2015.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee revealed that Israel detained 130 Palestinians over their social media activity, especially since the surging violence in October 2015.
Among those were 27 Palestinians who are charged with incitement to commit violent actions over Facebook and others who were held in administrative detention.
The detentions came as part of Israeli government’s crackdown on protests across Palestinian communities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel detained Palestinians who expressed their sympathy on social media with families of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces for alleged involvement in stabbing attacks or attempts against Israelis.
These detentions were facilitated after the Israeli government added an Arabic desk to the police cyber security unit in order to monitor Palestinians’ activity on social media networks in early October 2015.
The committee highlighted in the report that Palestinians in Jerusalem district bore the brunt of these detentions.
It said the fact that Palestinians expressed their opinions on social media websites was burdensome for Israeli authorities, placing considerable pressure on and compelling them to silence, detain and sentence Palestinians.
The committee also noted that Israel, claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East, failed to prosecute dozens of Israelis who advocated the killing of Palestinians (or incited violence against Palestinians) via their ports on social media.
It considered all Palestinians detained over their social media activism as prisoners of their opinion and slammed their detention as a violation of personal freedom.
Since October 1, Israeli forces have killed 162 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters and suspected attackers. According to Israeli foreign ministry statistics, 29 Israelis were killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians during the same period.
Israel has been widely denounced for its selective prosecution of Palestinians accused of incitement over social media, utilizing the law to clock its repression of Palestinians protesting settlement construction, land grab and intrusions into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Several Israeli politicians have incited against Palestinians, including former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said Israel "must raise the axe and cut off [the] heads" of Palestinian citizens of Israel who are "disloyal".
Thousands of Palestinians are held in Israeli jails and detention centers, mostly under administrative detention, a manner of imprisonment without charge or trial relying on secret evidence for up to six month periods, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military courts.
The health condition of Palestinian detainees reportedly deteriorated, forcing them to go on open-ended hunger strikes to protest this policy, which has been vehemently criticized by the international community as well as both Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations.
K.F/M.H
