Human rights in the State of Palestine
[8][clarification needed] In April 2012, a West Bank university lecturer, Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, was arrested for criticizing Abbas on Facebook.
[7] Subsequently, agents belonging to the PA's Preventive Security Service in Ramallah arrested Tarek Khamis, who works for the Palestinian Zaman Press news agency.
[9] According to David Keyes, George Canawati, the director of a Bethlehem radio station and journalist Rami Samar were detained for posting criticisms of the Palestinian Authority on Facebook.
[11] A Hamas-run council in the West Bank came under international criticism in 2005 for barring an open-air music and dance festival, on the basis of being "against Islam".
[12] February 2016, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has issued report documenting freedom of expression violations in both West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The monitor said that the number of human rights violations committed by PA authorities in the West Bank were significantly greater than those for which Hamas was responsible.
The Euro-Med monitor called both sides, the PA and Hamas, to issue a clear and binding resolution mandating freedom of expression and prohibiting all forms of abusive detention.
The international organization documented the case of Mutaz Abu Lihi, 21, who was arrested by security forces at intelligence headquarter according to court documents, the Palestinian prosecution charged Abu Lihi and his rappers fellows with creating strife, under article 150 of penal code, and criticizing a higher authority, under article 195.
The prosecution said that Abu Lihi and others sprayed outdoor graffiti whose content was "defamatory sentences that include insulting directed personally against the president of the state of Palestine and against the authorities".
As the three lawmakers were staging a sit- in at the office of the international committee of the Red Cross, their parliamentary immunity was suspended by the Palestinian president- Mahmoud Abbas; two of them are accused of embezzlement, weapons smuggling and defamation; as well as they were prevented from the delivery of food, water and visits by journalists.
Due to Israel's border closures, there was a lack of fuel on the markets in Gaza as well and the humanitarian crisis got much worse: increasing numbers of deaths, particularly among children and older, sick and disabled people living in the hundreds of high-rise building without elevators.
[19] In September 2006, a journalist was severely beaten and the computer equipment in the office of the Palestinian Authority's official news agency Wafa was destroyed.
Fatah officials noted that PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar has accused the agency "of waging a politically-motivated campaign of incitement" against him and blamed Hamas for the attack.
Khan Yunis governor Osama al-Farra condemned the attack, saying it, "reflected the continued state of anarchy and lawlessness in PA-controlled areas".
[17] The Fatah–Hamas conflict has further limited the freedom of the press in the PNA territories and the distribution of opposing voices in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the West Bank where Fatah still has more influence.
[21] In May 2015, Al-Jazeera journalist Muhammed Fayyad was reportedly assaulted by multiple police officers while covering a Turkish minister's visit to the Gazan Ministry of Endowments.
[26] These critiques have been supported by scholars Joost Hiltermann,[27][28] Nina Sovich[29][30] and Sos Nissen,[31] who argue that the PGFTU has long been dominated by political factions and has in turn failed to provide effective representation for workers.
According to Al-Jazeera, "Saed, who has been linked to Fatah, said Hamas executive forces had seized two more offices - in Gaza and Khan Younis - taking much of the property within.
"[32] In 2007, when DWRC organized the Federation of Independent and Democratic Trade Unions & Workers' Committees in Palestine representing 50,000 workers outside of the PGFTU,[33] the PGFTU retaliated by informing on the Gaza head of DWRC and the independent trade union coalition to Palestinian internal security, claiming that they were affiliated with Hamas.
Members of local gangs and terror cells blew up and destroyed institutions linked to Western culture such as American schools, church libraries and dozens of Internet cafes.
The draft Palestinian Basic Law specifically forbids discrimination against individuals based on their religion; however, the PA did not take any action against persons accused of harassment".
Despite being released after his family borrowed thousands of dollars for bribes, his father continued to be held, he believed as insurance of his silence on the matter.
In March 2007, the Ministry pulled an anthology of folktales narrated by Palestinian women from the curriculum, removed the book from libraries, and reportedly destroyed 1,500 copies.
The anthology was edited by Sharif Kanaana, a novelist and anthropology professor at Ramallah's Birzeit University, and Ibrahim Muhawi, a teacher of Arabic literature and the theory of translation.
[47] The Palestinian Labour Law of 2000 prohibits gender-based discrimination between men and women in the workplace, and allows for a 12-week maternity leave period.
Hamas has denied the existence of the anti-corruption group, but it was recently reported to have carried out a high-profile "honor killing" widely covered by the Palestinian media.
[60] The report claims that PA law enforcement raided universities, hospitals and houses in order to arrest people wanted for protesting against the Israeli occupation.
It is prohibited to launch rockets and to fire weapons from houses, and that is a supreme Palestinian interest that should not be violated because the result is barbaric retaliation by the occupying army and the citizenry cannot accept such shooting.
There is no vision or purpose to the missiles; the Palestinian interest is more important"[67] On the other hand, on 29 February 2008 Hamas parliamentarian Fathi Hammad spoke of a "death-seeking" culture where women, children and the elderly volunteer as human shields against Israeli military attacks.
On July 23, 2004, a family attempted to physically prevent the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades from setting up a Qassam rocket launcher outside their house.
