In less than a year, 400 Palestinians have been arrested in Israel for using Facebook.
Israeli authorities blame Facebook for inciting the wave of violent attacks by Palestinians last October; since then, the country's security forces have arrested hundreds of Palestinians involved in activities on social media, according to the human rights groups Addameer and Adalah; this year alone, the Israeli Attorney General's office has opened 155 investigations alleging incitement through social media.
By Opera Mundi
According to a report by the investigative journalism website The Intercept, approximately 400 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces for activity on social media since October 2015.
Israeli authorities blame Facebook for inciting the wave of violent attacks by Palestinians last October. Since then, the country's security forces have arrested hundreds of Palestinians involved in social media activity, according to human rights groups Addameer and Adalah. Most of the arrests are due to Facebook posts.
This year alone, the Israeli Attorney General's office has opened 155 investigations alleging incitement through social media. This number represents an increase compared to previous years.
According to the local newspaper Haaretz, although the law applies to all citizens and residents, the vast majority of punishments have been directed at Arabs living in Israel.
During Operation Protective Edge, Sohaib Zahda became the first Palestinian in the occupied territories to be arrested for social media posts. Until then, only Palestinians living in Israel had been detained.
According to Amit Meyer, a former member of the 8200th military unit, equivalent to the National Security Agency, gathering information on Facebook was a priority when he served in the Army from 2010 to 2013. He explains that users of the social network post a lot of open information, which makes the work of understanding Palestinian relations easier.