The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has expressed grave concern over the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces’ “arbitrary” detention of Ahmed al-Khawaja a young man from Ni’lin town in Ramallah for 12 consecutive days after he posted a comment on the Facebook page of Leila Ghannam the governor of Ramallah.
The Geneva-based group noted that a force from the PA preventive security apparatus arrested Khawaja on April 18 2020 after raiding his house in Ni’lin town in the central West Bank before transferring him two days later to the public prosecution on a charge of inciting sectarian strife because of his remarks on Facebook.
According to the Euro-Med Monitor’s follow-up the arrest of Khawaja who previously spent more than 18 months in Israeli jails happened after he wrote a comment on a Facebook post by the governor of Ramallah Leila Ghannam in which he expressed his surprise at the closure of mosques due to restrictions adopted due to the pandemic while Easter ceremonies were allowed for Christians.
“While the Euro-Med Monitor affirms the necessity for citizens to comply with precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus COVID 19 it warns that the detention of Khawaja is against freedom of opinion and expression. What he wrote was just a question by a citizen to an official and does not represent any insult or incitement to sectarian strife” Euro-Med said.
Euro-Med pointed out that “an important figure like the governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam whose field efforts in the face of the coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic had been appreciated and praised on social media platforms should announce her refusal of arresting anyone just for commenting on her personal Facebook page. Only through dialogue and direct discussion on Facebook can misconceptions be made clear without the need for arbitrary arrest and detention.”
Euro-Med stressed its rejection of taking advantage of the declared state of emergency to confront the coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic to justify campaigns of arbitrary detention of activists and social workers in a clear violation of human rights agreements which Palestine ratified as well as the local laws in the Palestinian territories.
The organization affirmed “its condemnation of the Palestinian Authority’s continued broad accusations and use of the cybercrime law to arrest journalists writers and social media influencers” accusing the PA of using such law to silence and suppress freedom of opinion and expression in the West Bank.
Euro-Med called on the PA to drop the charges against Khawaja release him immediately and stop any prosecution and detention against the background of freedom of opinion and expression.
“Ramallah Governor Laila Ghanem is urged to take a stand against using the emergency law as a pretext to restrict freedoms and keep Khawaja away from his wife child and sick mother during the month of Ramadan and detain him in difficult circumstances despite the coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic. During this time prisoners in many parts of the world who have been arrested for light offences have been released.”
