On the evening of April 2, 2023, Ramzi Abbassi, a prominent Palestinian journalist and social media influencer, drove back to his home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. He had been at a nearby hospital visiting his mother, who was severely ill and would pass away just a few weeks later. It was Ramadan, and, before getting into his car, he video-chatted with his wife Shaima and his two young children, Kanan and Sanawat, promising to pick up bread on the way home to break the fast. As Abbassi neared his street, however, he encountered Israeli police at a temporary roadblock, who told him to stop driving and forced him out of the car.
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According to Shaima, Abbassi was hit on the head, handcuffed, blindfolded, and pushed into a police cruiser. He would spend the next 90 days in the Russian Compound — an Israeli prison in West Jerusalem — facing a stack of allegations that he posed a threat to Israeli national security. In addition to his three months of detention and interrogation, Ramzi was sentenced to a year and one day in prison. And while the eventual charges were ostensibly unrelated to his online activity, Abbassi’s lawyer has no doubts that this is the principal reason for his client’s incarceration.
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Charges against Palestinian social media users have surged in recent years — particularly in the wake of the Palestinian uprising of May 2021 known as the “Unity Intifada” — and Abbassi is just one of many whom Israeli authorities have surveilled, censored, detained, and incarcerated for their online activity. Usually, they are accused of inciting violence or sympathizing with a terrorist organization; however, when it comes to Palestinians, “incitement,” “sympathy,” and “terrorism” are often broadly defined. Legal advocates say that the crackdown on Palestinian online speech constitutes an alarming form of political persecution, resulting in a systemic restriction of Palestinian freedom of expression.
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Read the full article by @sopgood through the link in our bio. 📸: Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Activestills