A university lecturer and single mother of two, Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, was arrested in the West Bank on March 28 for criticizing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook. Perhaps this is what Abbas meant when he said during a recent interview with al-Jazeera that his party, Fatah, was a political and ideological copy of the terrorist group Hamas. His words: "In all honesty, there are no disagreements between us."
In recent months, Hamas has cracked down on dissidents, women and online activists. It has arrested journalists, banned a social media conference and jailed several bloggers. One university student in Gaza, who asked not to be named, expressed the fears of many when we spoke this year. "Hamas has many modern apparatuses to censor the Internet and telephone systems," she said. "But even without this, they have infiltrated our society deeply."
Under Abbas, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has replicated Hamas' brutality. Slander of high-ranking officials, including the president, is illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison. The public prosecutor, Ahmad al-Mughani, said of Abdul-Khaleq's Facebook criticism, "These expressions go beyond freedom of expression." A spokesman for Palestinian Authority security forces told journalists that Abdul-Khaleq, who is being held in solitary confinement, was jailed for "extending her tongue" against the president. In fact, she advocated dismantling the Palestinian Authority and called Abbas a "fascist."