Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, Palestinian Lecturer, Arrested For Alleged Facebook Insult

Lilyan, daughter of Palestinian Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a West Bank university lecturer, holds a photograph of her mother at the family house in in the West Bank city of Ramllah, Monday, April 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Palestinian woman accused of defaming the president on her Facebook page has been detained for two weeks while an investigation is carried out, activists said Monday, in what they say is a growing crackdown on writers who criticize the West Bank government.

Palestinian security forces arrested Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a West Bank university lecturer, last Wednesday after they found writing on her Facebook page accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of being a traitor and demanding he resign, said lawyer Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian rights group al-Haq.

Abdul-Khaleq's detention is the latest in what activists say is the Palestinian authorities' increasing intolerance of criticism and a worrying trend of mining Facebook to spy on Palestinians.

"We are genuinely concerned about tightening limits on freedom of expression and on the media," Abdeen said. "We don't want reporters to second-guess what they write on whether they will be punished or not."

Abdeen said the Palestinian public persecutor's office was particularly harsh in ordering the prolonged detention of those accused of defamation. Abdul-Khaleq is a single mother of two children.

In other recent cases, newspaper reporter Yousef al-Shayeb has been held for eight days for allegedly defaming public officials. Al-Shayeb was expected to be released Monday after a court ordered him freed on $8,000 bail after a public outcry.

Two other reporters were interrogated last week, one for his Facebook posts and the other over a story he was researching.

A Palestinian spokesman said he could not comment on the cases because the judiciary was independent of the government.

Defaming the president and other high-level officials is a crime in the Palestinian Authority.

"These expressions go beyond freedom of expression," said public prosecutor Ahmed al-Mughani.

She is also accused of calling Abbas a "traitor" and saying he partied with prostitutes on the graves of slain Palestinians. Abdeen said Abdul-Khaleq denied she wrote those things.

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Hadid reported from Jerusalem.

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Comments

[CubnKira]

11:10 PM on 04/04/2012

A 17 year old Egyptian, Christian has just been sentenced to 3 years in prison for not respecting muhammed on his facebook page. Tension between the Coptic Christians (about 10% of the population) and muslims has been growing since Mubarek left.

Obama, what happened to your "Arab Spring"? It has been a disaster in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood, the foundation for so many terrorists, taking control. You were the first Pres. to ever recognize the MB. You are so naive, Obama. You do not deserve a second term under any stretch of the imagination.

[A Jew with a View]

09:56 AM on 04/04/2012

Only 16 posts on this article. If this article was about Israel and not the PA there would be 1600 posts. I wonder where are all the pro-freedom of speech supporters that are quick to critisize Israel?

[erehwon2]

11:20 AM on 04/03/2012

I find it troubling that the PA continues to restrict free speech but find it even more troubling that the free speech suppressed in this case seems to support greater violence and less conciliation toward Israel.

I want to believe that the average Palestinian really wants to live life in peace and would be willing to accept Israel's existence and to make concessions in order to make that happen, but as time goes on I suspect my wish is terribly naive.

[Rosin the Bow]

10:59 AM on 04/03/2012

Ah, Palestinians, beloved by leftists everywhere.

[fullofmitt]

09:04 PM on 04/02/2012

Too bad the headline didn't say who was keeping her quiet!!

[not2 good]

06:58 PM on 04/02/2012

When Abbass took over Arafat's Fatah movement he was handed a corrupt government. This was one of the reasons Hamas came to power. Abbass did not want to hand over the power to Hamas, which was won in a democratic election, and it gave the US and Israel an excuse not to negotiate with the Palestinians. Fatah is still corrupt and can not allow the sun to shine in.

[fullofmitt]

08:59 PM on 04/02/2012

Arafat's "movement" was the PLO! Changed to Fatah,one of the PLO factions ..so it didn't seem so terrifying!!

[not2 good]

12:13 PM on 04/03/2012

What"s in a name. A rose.....

[fullofmitt]

03:50 PM on 04/02/2012

Arabs restraining other Arabs' freedom of speech.....as USUAL!

[smp276dp]

02:21 PM on 04/02/2012

The great social media at work again. I don't see all the positives here people.
People killed or lose their jobs. I know news in an instant etc.
But when freedom of expression and speech are hurt something has gone terribly wrong.

[rlstrvencha]

02:01 PM on 04/02/2012

You go girl, put his business in the street where it belongs.

[JerryLevy]

01:44 PM on 04/02/2012

Gee, I wish the Palestinians well in one day getting their own Muslim dictatorship. Keep up the demonstrations, suicide bombings, and boycotts.

[fullofmitt]

03:53 PM on 04/02/2012

They have it NOW ever since Abbas and Hamas joined forces!

[dollym100]

01:39 PM on 04/02/2012

Actions like this are very detrimental to the Palestinian cause. They must stop oppressing their own people if they want the west of the world to support their call for Statehood.

[not2 good]

07:01 PM on 04/02/2012

They could be dancing in the streets singing kumbaya and the nations, that control the world, would still never allow them to become a state.

[dollym100]

08:37 PM on 04/02/2012

Well this will certainly not win them any new friends.

I have always thought that they are their own worst enemy in their fight for nationhood. Israel is increasingly coming under criticism for their treatment of the Palestinian people and their continued expansion in land that does not belong to them.

Now is the perfect time for them to highlight the hardship of living in an occupied land. They should be telling the world how difficult their lives are under Israeli control and how badly they are treated.. But instead, they clamp down on their own people.

They have just opened a small window for outsiders to see what life would be without the occupiers.. Sadly, it it the same repressive place, just the people in charge are different, and they still do not have freedom.

[wolfiegd]

12:45 PM on 04/02/2012

Republicans are the same the world over. "less government means more government to them".