Hamas Movement along with the Information Ministry in Gaza condemned the Ramallah general prosecutor Mohamed Barak’s decision to block 11 websites based on orders by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement on Thursday that the decision targets the freedom of the press and reflects the dictatorial approach adopted by Abbas and the PA in dealing with the Palestinian people.
Barhoum called on Palestinians factions and human rights institutions to break the silence in regards with Abbas’s practices and to take action to foil his attempts to repress his own people.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information in Gaza for its part denounced the PA’s decision to block the online websites.
Salama Marouf head of the ministry’s media office said: “The PA’s decision is a flagrant infringement of the Palestinian Basic Law and runs contrary to the right to access information”.
In a statement on Thursday Marouf stressed the importance of supporting the blocked websites. He underlined that the decision has no legal justification since most of the targeted websites have been working for years under official legal licenses.
He also slammed the PA for being so fast in enforcing the decision without giving any explanation or legal justification for taking it saying that this move serves only the Israeli occupation.
Marouf asked the PA Public Prosecution to cancel the decision and to abide by the Palestinian Basic Law.
For its part Omama news website which is among the blocked sites condemned the decision and demanded the PA to cancel it.
