Arab-Israeli detained for Facebook post

Israeli police yesterday detained an Arab-Israeli for publishing posts on social media which were “inciting”, Ma’an news site reported.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Al-Samri said that during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Israeli forces detained a resident of Nazareth who reportedly posted pictures of “terrorists” on Facebook with messages of support, along with a picture of himself holding a gun.

An Israeli magistrate’s court in Nazareth extended the detention of the 25-year-old suspect to Sunday.

Israeli authorities have increasingly cracked down on Palestinian activists, intellectuals and citizens for “incitement” over social media.

Most recently, the Facebook accounts of scores of Palestinian journalists have been deleted, following an agreement between right-wing Israeli Knesset member Ayelet Shaked and Facebook to censor content that Israel deemed as “incitement”.

In recent months, Israel has detained scores of Palestinians for social media activity, alleging that a wave of unrest that swept the occupied Palestinian territory since last October was encouraged largely by Palestinian “incitement”.

Palestinians have pointed chiefly to the frustration and despair brought on by Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territory and the absence of a political horizon.