No freedom of speech in the oPt

Three items here from Ma’an and Reuters.

Lieut-Col Osama Mansour, an officer in the Palestinian Military Liaison, was arrested on Saturday morning then pardoned by Pres. Abbas on Wednesday afternoon.

Palestinian officer sentenced to one year in prison for criticizing Abbas

By Ma’an news
October 12/ 13 2016

RAMALLAH — A Palestinian military court in Ramallah ordered that a Palestinian military liaison officer be sentenced to a year in prison and have his military rank suspended for writing a post on social media criticizing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Osama Mansour’s sentence was awaiting final approval from Abbas, Mansour’s son said, adding that the order had been issued while Mansour’s lawyer was out of the country.

Mansour was charged with “disobeying orders” after being detained on Oct. 1 for publishing a post on his Facebook page asking Abbas to reconsider his decision to attend Peres’ funeral.

Mansour, also known as Abu Arab, served as the director of public relations and media at the Palestinian military liaison, a unit with the Palestinian security forces responsible for coordinating security with Israel.

In his post, Mansour, also known as Abu Arab — had highlighted the irony of Abbas offering his condolences for Peres — “the founder of settlement activity” — in spite of the Palestinian president’s repeated condemnation of the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. The post read:

Whether (Peres) was a terrorist or not, whether he invented of the policy of breaking bones during the First Intifada or not, whether he was involved in the Jenin refugee camp massacre, the massacre of the al-Yasmin neighbourhood in Nablus, or the massacre of Qana — who is he that you are going to partake in his funeral while the majority of the people you represent oppose him? There should be no personal or friendly relations with the occupier, as long as they continue with their arrogant policies against our people.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has come under fire for cracking down on Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory criticizing the Palestinian government. In August, International NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report notably revealing that Palestinian security forces in the West Bank had detained activists and rap musicians for criticizing the PA’s well-known security co-operation with Israel, while also accusing the government of corruption.

The group stated that the recent violations of freedom of speech represented a larger pattern by Palestinian authorities which has been documented by the group over the past five years.

“At a time when many Palestinians are critical of their leaders, the crackdowns have a chilling effect on public debate in the traditional news media, and on social media,” the report read.

Despite the fact that violations of press freedoms by Palestinian authorities have been fewer and less severe than those committed by Israeli authorities, Palestinian press freedoms watchdog MADA noted in a recent report that as a direct result of violations by Palestinian authorities, Palestinian journalists and media workers “avoid addressing several topics” and practised self-censorship.

Palestinian president pardons officer jailed for criticizing him over Peres

By Nidal Almughrabi, Reuters
October 13, 2016

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday pardoned a military officer sentenced to a year in jail for criticizing him for attending the funeral of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, an official said.

A court in the occupied West Bank had sentenced Lieutenant-Colonel Osama Mansour to jail and ordered him dismissed because he had broken a military code of conduct forbidding uniformed officials from expressing political opinions, his lawyer said.

But a senior Palestinian official, who declined to be named, told Reuters: “The president has issued an amnesty decree in favor of Mansour and the officer will be sent into retirement.”

The officer had been held in custody since he posted his criticism on Facebook earlier this month.

While supporters defended Abbas as making a diplomatic and a good-will gesture in attending Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem earlier this month, critics in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip said he betrayed national principles.

Peres, 93, shared a Nobel prize for interim peace deals with the Palestinians but many social media postings in Arabic focused on a view of his legacy that jarred with his world acclaim as an architect of the landmark Oslo accords in the 1990s.

Peres’s state funeral was attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and dozens of dignitaries from around the world. Abbas’s visit was his first to Jerusalem since 2010.

Before the funeral, Mansour called on Abbas on his Facebook page to reconsider his decision to participate and said it would be “wrong” for the Palestinian leader to attend.

“If it was your decision to take part in the funeral of the killer of our children, you were wrong, and if you made the decision on the recommendation (of your advisers), you were misled,” Mansour wrote.

Palestinian journalists hold banners during a protest calling for the release of Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal, who was arrested by Israeli authorities over the weekend, outside Ofer military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Photo by Majdi Mohammed/AP

Israeli violations against journalists in occupied territory increase by 17% in first half of 2016

By Ma’an news
August 28/September 01, 2016

BETHLEHEM — A Palestinian press freedoms watchdog said on Saturday that Israeli violations against media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territory had continued to rise at a rapid pace over the first half of 2016.

The increase came even after the group reported an “unprecedented” increase in violations throughout 2015 — “the highest ever to be monitored in Palestine” since the group started monitoring violations against media freedoms more than a decade ago.

The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms, known as MADA, recorded a 17 percent escalation of violations by Israeli authorities during the first half of 2016.

MADA General Director Moussa Rimawi said in the semi-annual report that while the total number of violations by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities declined from 224 in the first half of 2015 to 198 in the first half of this year — a rate of 12 percent — Israeli violations continued to climb, while Palestinian authorities committed 41 percent less violations during the same period.

A total of 133 violations committed by Israel were recorded, compared to 43 in the occupied West Bank and 22 in the blockaded Gaza Strip committed by Palestinian authorities.

Rimawi notes since MADA began monitoring and documenting violations against media freedoms more than a decade ago, “Israeli violations are considered as the most grave and dangerous,” not only in terms of quantity, but in terms of their severity.

Of the 15 different types of violations in MADA’s documentation, the top most common committed by Israel were physical attacks, arrests, confiscation of equipment, prevention of coverage, and detentions.

The most severe violation recorded during the first half of 2016 was the “execution” of the 22-year-old Palestinian journalism student Iyad Omar Sajadiyya, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in March during fierce clashes that broke out when the military raided Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank to extricate two soldiers.

Palestinian journalists were also exposed to 33 physical injuries from bullets, stun grenades, tear gas canisters, or beatings.

The report added that Israeli authorities closed two media institutions after ransacking and confiscated equipment from their offices, while 23 journalists and media workers have been detained between January and June of 2016.
The report also highlighted the escalation of the Israeli practice of detaining Palestinians for social media activity, with Israeli authorities alleging that a wave of unrest that swept the occupied Palestinian territory last October was encouraged largely by “incitement.”

Legislation was also recently approved in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to fine social media sites like Twitter and Facebook that do not remove content encouraging “terrorism,” expected to be joined with another bill that would allow courts to order social media providers to remove content that Israel seems to be a danger to personal, public or state security.

A member of the PA security forces launches an attack on a Palestinian journalist, July 2012. Photo by Mohamad Torokman/ Reuters

In contrast to Israeli violations, while violations by Palestinian authorities against media freedoms were fewer and considered “less serious” by MADA, the group said that “doesn’t by any means justify or reduce the severity” of their impact, “especially since some of these practices and methods of oppression and prosecutions are being practiced systematically to spread fear among journalists and to silence them.”

MADA noted that as a direct result of violations by Palestinian authorities, Palestinian journalists and media workers “avoid addressing several topics” and practice self censorship.

Most violations by Palestinian authorities documented by MADA were characterized as three types: interrogation by Palestinian security forces, detentions, and arrests.

“MADA is gravely concerned regarding all systematic attacks and violence against journalists and media workers by the Israeli occupation, and urges state members to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists, to ensure accountability, and bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against media freedoms,” the group said.