Around the same time, the pro-Hamas Ramattan News Agency was forced to stop operations after “relentless and heightened persecution” by the PA following positive coverage of Hamas events.9 And in January 2009, Mohammed Suleiman Abu Shtayyeh, a journalist who reported on a pro-Hamas rally in Ramallah, was attacked by PA loyalists and sustained a broken nose.10 The crackdown continued the following month, when the PA refused to release six journalists who had been detained for allegedly being Hamas supporters.11
The campaign against Hamas media outlets continued as the internecine conflict remained unresolved. However, it was increasingly unclear whether the media outlets were aligned with Hamas or simply reporting in a way that was not critical enough of Abbas’s rival faction. In January 2012, Palestinian security forces arrested Al-Ahram reporter Khaled Amayreh for criticizing Abbas and referring to Hamas strongman Ismail Haniyeh as the “legitimate Palestinian prime minister.”12 As the United Nation’s rapporteur on the Palestinian–Israeli conflict noted, the PA also banned many newspapers from circulation in the West Bank because they were “perceived to be sympathetic” to Hamas. As of June 2012, that list included Al-Risala, Falastin, and Minbar al-Islah.13
As Hale notes, “At this point, there is no denying that the Palestinian Authority is actively involved in repressing not only Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an official capacity . . . but also individuals who happen to share those views. [The PA is] rarely, if ever, called out for routine arrests of Hamas members or attacks on Hamas media, and I think this is because the PA’s supporters in Washington and Brussels support this.”14
Violations of free speech increasingly extended to include attacks on nonaligned journalists and even bloggers who challenged the authority of Abbas or the government over which he presides.
In July 2009, the PA banned Al-Jazeera from operating in the West Bank15 for a few days after the news channel reported on allegations that Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan were accomplices in Yasser Arafat’s death.16 The move had a chilling effect. As one former Palestinian intelligence official noted, “Al-Jazeera and other Arab media outlets told me that they are afraid to publish anything that angers the Palestinian Authority.”17 Al-Jazeera felt the wrath of the PA again in January 2011, following the channel’s publication of the “Palestine Papers,”18 which revealed some 1,700 confidential documents, maps, emails, and conversations detailing some of the Palestinian leadership’s secret negotiation sessions with Israel. After they were leaked, Palestinian security officers attempted to storm Al-Jazeera’s Ramallah offices.19
But the Qatari TV juggernaut was not the only target. In December 2010, for example, a journalist in Bethlehem was arrested for his reporting on the bitter dispute between Abbas and Dahlan.20 The following month, a correspondent for the Al-Quds TV station was arrested for merely posting a Facebook missive that was critical of Abbas.21
Amid such reports, rights groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) began to sound alarms. Groups such as the Independent Commission for Human Rights castigated the PA for its repression. Ironically, the PA banned journalists from reporting on the NGO’s findings.22
All of this led to a general climate of fear. The PA continued to threaten or punish writers who criticized the government, and the journalists appeared to have little recourse. In August 2011, a Palestinian journalist was forced into hiding due to her coverage of a number of sit-in strikes.23 In September 2011, PA forces arrested Christian journalist George Canawati of Bethlehem 2000 Radio over a Facebook post.24 The Jerusalem Post later reported that he was set to face trial due to his critical comments on the city’s medical services.25
In February 2012, PA forces arrested an editor at the official PA news agency WAFA for his comments on social media sites. Rami Samara later recounted that plainclothes security agents escorted him from his office and held him for four hours. “They showed me about 100 pages of comments I made on Facebook, mostly criticizing the Palestinian Authority and the PLO,” he said.26
The PA then went a step too far as it detained a Palestinian journalist who wrote an article that was critical of the Palestinian mission in France, detailing how diplomats allegedly hired Arab students to spy on Islamic groups in France.27 The journalist, Yousef al-Shayeb of the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad, was arrested after a complaint by several Palestinian diplomats who were impacted by the story.28
The PA subsequently extended Shayeb’s detention and demanded that the journalist pay $6 million in restitution, even though he was not charged with a crime. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate organized a sit-in to protest.29 The International Federation of Journalists—the world’s largest journalist union—also condemned the move.30 In late March 2012, al-Shayeb began a hunger strike to protest his detention.31 He was eventually released.
The PA continued to arrest bloggers, however. Among them was Jamal Abu Rihan, who ran the Facebook page “The people want an end to corruption.”32 The PA also arrested journalist Ismat Abdel Khaleq over a comment she posted on Facebook criticizing the PA leadership and calling for the dismantlement of the PA. “Yes to bringing down the traitor Mahmoud Abbas,” “Abbas is the fascist,” and “Abbas has held a party of immorality and shame at the blood of martyrs” were reportedly some of the comments she posted.33 According to the Jerusalem Post, she was held in solitary confinement by the West Bank government.34
The PA, for its part, continued to deny wrongdoing. As the Ma’an News Agency reported, a spokesman said at a Ramallah press conference that criticisms against the government concerning its suppression of freedom of speech and journalists were exaggerated, emphasizing the need to differentiate between censorship and defamation or slander.35 The PA’s attorney general defended Khaleq’s arrest, adding that he had “no problem” with his government detaining journalists, adding that “lawyers and judges” had recently been detained, too.36
The PA, however, could not quash all dissent. Indeed, what could the Abbas government do when criticism came from outside its jurisdiction? In April 2012, a scandal erupted when the Ma’an News Agency reported that Palestinian officials had “quietly instructed Internet providers to block access to news websites whose reporting is critical of President Mahmoud Abbas.”37
This tactic was not a new one. In 2008, the PA had targeted the Gaza-based Donia al-Watan news agency, which had been reporting on political corruption in the PA. Users in the West Bank were blocked from accessing a website that published a scathing piece about Abbas’s government called “Ramallah’s Banana Republic.” According to the site’s editor, Abdulla Issa, “The block was aimed at pressuring us to stop publishing articles on corruption.” Issa added, “The attorney general did not call us and we were not given the chance to defend ourselves.” Reportedly, the order stemmed directly from a complaint filed by Abbas’s office.38
By 2011, the spats with Mohammad Rachid, Dahlan, and other exiled political rivals prompted an unprecedented wave of anti-Abbas invective online from websites outside the West Bank. With mounting allegations of corruption and wrongdoing, Abbas responded by blocking them in the territories where he had control.
On January 28, 2012, hackers took down InLight Press, a stridently anti-Abbas website believed to be linked to Rachid,39 after the site alleged that Abbas had ordered his security forces to tap his political opponents’ phones.40 When InLight Press returned online, its editors claimed that the cyber-attack, which it called “treacherous barbarism,” originated from “the Palestinian Authority with the approval of President Abbas.” InLight Press also alleged that Abbas had created a “crisis cell,” headed by Sabri Saidam, former head of the PA Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, to coordinate the attack.41
A week later, on February 3, InLight Press was hacked again,42 but it continued to publish scathing criticisms of Abbas and the PA when it came back online. In response, the Palestinian leadership again reportedly blocked access to InLight Press in
the territories.43 Days later, the Gaza-based website Amad, which was also critical of Abbas, reported that Palestinian users could not access its website because the Palestinian government had blocked it.44
Reporters soon began to sniff around. As the Ma’an News Agency reported, the PA attorney general personally delivered the order to block these sites and was reportedly “acting on instructions from higher up in the government—either from the president’s office or an intelligence director.”45
InLight Press quoted a Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry official who claimed that the site was spreading “sedition and lies to break up the structure of Palestinian society.” As a result, the official claimed, the PA had the “right to defend . . . against this malicious and suspicious campaign.”46
The West Bank erupted in scandal when the extent of the censorship was revealed.47 On April 25, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) issued a statement admitting it had “no choice except to abide by” orders from Palestinian officials to block websites.48 The following day, the Palestinian minister of communication and information technology, Mashour Abu Daka, resigned, citing “personal reasons” for his departure.49
Abbas has since reversed the censorship order.50 However, there appears to be no law criminalizing what the PA has done.
For Palestinians, the lack of freedom of the press and the accompanying repression on the Internet led to frustration. Few knew how it might manifest. But on June 30, 2012, Palestinian protests erupted. It started when young Palestinians in Ramallah protested a scheduled meeting between Abbas and then Israeli vice premier Shaul Mofaz.51
In many ways, protesting against Israel—the lowest common denominator among Palestinians—was a safe and acceptable way to protest the PA. It was not a particularly large demonstration, but according to the Ma’an News Agency, the protesters “were blocked by riot police and some plain clothes agents.” Palestinian forces subsequently attacked protesters and journalists; at least six people were injured, and six others were detained.52
The following day, as protesters organized with the help of social media, Palestinians took to the streets again, calling on the PA to “end negotiations with Israel” and for “the police to respect free speech.”53 Again, the protesters appeared to merge the two disparate issues in an attempt to create a more palatable political package. According to Ma’an, “Police attacked protesters with batons, beating and injuring at least seven people. Another seven protesters were taken to a police station along with at least two journalists.”54
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) further reported that “police officers and members of the security services in civilian clothes used clubs to beat demonstrators and media professionals.”55 One journalist was quoted as saying, “It was more crazy than yesterday, you can’t imagine—they hit girls and were laughing like they don’t care about Palestinians.”56 Eyewitnesses told the PCHR “that the Chief of Police in Ramallah . . . Colonel Abdul Latif Qaddoumi and his assistant, Mohammed Abu Bakr, were present and participated in the use of force against the demonstrators.”57
Activists began calling for the dismissal of Ramallah’s police chief.58 The PCHR,59 the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA),60 the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate,61 and the Committee to Protect Journalists62 issued statements condemning the crackdown, too. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi joined in condemning the violence,63 while the PA minister of interior Said Abu Ali called for a committee to investigate the incidents.64
On July 3, 2012, protesters once again took to the streets of Ramallah, calling on the Palestinian leadership to end negotiations with Israel but also to respect freedom of speech. After gathering in Ramallah’s central Manara Square, the protesters headed for the presidential Muqata compound. Outside Abbas’s offices, protesters chanted, “The people want to bring down Oslo” but also “Down with military rule.”65
This protest and other subsequent smaller protests passed without incident. However, Palestinians remained irate over the West Bank government’s heavy-handed tactics. Abbas ordered one inquiry into the Ramallah police officials who mismanaged the protests. But that was insufficient to many Palestinians, who called for additional oversight.
In August, the Council of Palestinian Human Rights Organizations announced the results of its own inquiry and formally acknowledged that “high-ranking” PA officials ordered the suppression of the Ramallah protests. As the Ma’an News Agency noted, “Officials in the president’s office ordered security forces to prevent demonstrators from reaching the presidential compound, the rights groups found.”66 Human Rights Watch, for its part, urged Palestinian officials to hold the perpetrators accountable.67 The PA rejected the report. Adnan Dmeiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, said the report was a “clear attack on the presidency.”68
Abbas, for his part, called on official media outlets to stop focusing so much of their efforts on his activities.69 But his government continued to attract negative attention. On July 22, 2012, Palestinian security forces reportedly threatened to kill Mahmoud Mattar, a journalism student who had written a critical article about “the political situation” in the West Bank. According to Mattar, Palestinian authorities threatened him, saying, “We will hang you and say that you committed suicide.”70
In early September, PA TV censored the audio of audience members who expressed views that were critical of Abbas and the PA.71 Later that month, Palestinian forces arrested the director of the West Bank office of the Falastin newspaper, Walid Khalid. Mohammad Muna of Quds Press Agency was arrested the following day.72 Both were released on bail in late October.73
In October 2012, Jihad Harb, a Palestinian columnist, was summoned for interrogation by PA security forces over an article he had written in August.74 The article had raised troubling questions as to the hiring and promotion process within the PA.75
In February 2013, a man from the Nablus area was sentenced to one year in prison for criticizing the PA leadership and “fomenting sedition and sectarian strife.” Anas Awwad was sentenced by the PA Magistrate’s Court in Nablus, which based its verdict on a 50-year-old Jordanian law banning “extending one’s tongue” against the monarch. Awwad had been arrested four times in the past by Abbas’s security apparatus.76 In March 2013, a Palestinian court sentenced Mamdouh Hamamreh of Al-Quds TV in Bethlehem to a year in jail for a picture on Facebook that was deemed insulting to Abbas.77 Abbas issued a presidential pardon on the same day that the court upheld his one-year sentence.78
As Hale notes, “For Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, I think the biggest obstacle is the legal system and the selective enforcement of libel and slander laws to go after journalists. . . . A Palestinian official can file a ‘complaint’ accusing a journalist of libel that results in his arrest . . . and they can hold people for 15 days for ‘investigation.’ The legal system also favors the rich and powerful because, to sue someone, you have to put up something like 10 percent of the amount you’re suing him for. So, if you’re a powerful minister, for example, suing a newspaper reporter, the odds are stacked against the reporter.”79
In April 2013, the PCHR reported that Palestinian security officers broke up two peaceful sit-ins organized by the Islamist group Hizbut-Tahrir. In one confrontation, officers reportedly “started beating the participants with sticks and clubs.” More than 30 protesters were arrested.80
There is nothing to indicate that these abuses will cease. Indeed, the self-censorship has shown no signs of ceasing, either. This atmosphere of fear has only inhibited the Palestinians from engaging in critical political discussion about their future government and ultimately has made it more difficult for the Palestinian people to make the choices necessary to effect real change. As outgoing prime minister Salam Fayyad told a group of Palestinian photojournalists in May 2013, freedom of the press must be an essential component
of the Palestinian state.81
13
Unilateralism
“In our endeavor today to acquire non-member state status for Palestine in the United Nations,” said Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations on November 29, 2012, “we reaffirm that Palestine will always adhere to and respect the charter and resolutions of the United Nations and international humanitarian law, uphold equality, guarantee civil liberties, uphold the rule of law, promote democracy and pluralism, and uphold and protect the rights of women.”1
The Palestinian president made this plea for nonmember observer state status for Palestine against the stated wishes of US president Barack Obama. He also did so against the wishes of Canadian premier Stephen Harper. And it goes without saying that he did so against the wishes of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nevertheless, the Palestinian leader won the support of the UN General Assembly by a vote of 138 to 9.
Rather than seeking ways to deprive the Palestinian leader of the power that he had been abusing since coming to office seven years earlier, the international community was looking for new ways to prop him up. Diplomats quietly conceded that the UN vote was just as much about countering the growing influence of Hamas, particularly after the Gaza-based group claimed victory in a rocket war with Israel earlier in the month, as it was about the Palestinian national project.
The UN initiative had been in the works since 2005. That year, Abbas reportedly traveled to Brazil for a summit of South American and Arab states and met privately with Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There, Lula told Abbas that by the end of his second term (which expired on January 1, 2011), he would help build a Latin American consensus for a unilateral Palestinian statehood declaration at the UN.
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