Palestinian Authority (PA) Arrests Human Rights Activist – Must Be Israel’s Fault! - by Sheri Oz

...I find it “interesting” (to put it mildly) that when the PA does something that even Amnesty International finds fault with, Beinart finds a way to put the blame squarely on Israel’s head.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
07 September '17..

Amnesty International, not a friend of Israel by any means, reported clearly and simply on the arrest of Issa Amro of Hebron. Then along come other news websites that embellish the story, most in a way that makes it seem like Israel is to blame for the Palestinian Authority (PA) having taken him into custody.

After explaining what happened, Amnesty International takes the PA to task for clamping down on free speech:

Issa Amro, a Hebron-based coordinator for Youth Against Settlements and a former field researcher for the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, was detained at around midday local time today by Palestinian Preventive Security Forces, after he posted comments on his Facebook page criticizing the arrest of a local radio journalist [Ayman Qawasmeh] yesterday by the same Palestinian security forces.

“It is outrageous that a prominent human rights defender has been arrested simply for voicing his opinion online. Criticizing the authorities should not be a criminal offence. Issa Amro’s arrest is the latest evidence that the Palestinian authorities are determined to continue with their repressive campaign against free speech,” said Magdalena Mughrabi Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International recently highlighted a chilling escalation in attacks on media and freedom of expression by both the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Hamas de facto administration in Gaza, detaining a string of journalists and shutting down opposition websites.

How odd then, that other “reporters” felt the need to involve Israel in this story. I guess they had to add something of their own rather than just regurgitate original press releases, the latter of which is all too frequent in today’s so-called journalism. And what better to add than that Israel is at the bottom of this. Here is how they did it:

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