PA jails Palestinian for insulting Abbas on Facebook

The Palestinian Authority has arrested a Palestinian man over Facebook posts he published which were critical of the ruling Fatah party, according to local media reports.

A Palestinian court in the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah ordered 23-year-old Nassar Jaradat’s remand to be extended by 15 days on Saturdays, three days after he was arrested, accord to reports.

Jaradat was reportedly arrested for writing statements critical of Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub, who recently said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 that the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City should “remain under Jewish sovereignty”. Jaradat was also reportedly accused of criticising Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Read: Israeli rabbi charged with ‘incitement’ for condoning killing Palestinians

In a public Facebook post last Sunday, Jaradat slammed Rajoub for “giving away to the unworthy what you don’t own personally”.

Jaradat denounced Rajoub and the Fatah leadership for “falling over themselves” to gain the acceptance of Israel.

Jerusalem-based news outlet the Al-Quds Network quoted Jaradat’s father as saying his son was a former prisoner of Israel and an agricultural engineering student at Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah.