The Palestinian Authority detained a student over a Facebook status and people weren't happy

The Palestinian Authority detained a student over a Facebook status and people weren't happy
Outraged Palestinians slammed the detention of a 23-year-old student who was taken by the PA for criticising an official on Facebook.
2 min read
12 June, 2017
Nassar Jaradat was arrested on 8 June for criticising a PA official [Facebook]

Palestinians took to social media to protest against the detention of a Palestinian student, who was taken away not by Israelis, but by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Nassar Jaradat, 23, was taken by the PA on 8 June from Ramallah after he criticised PA official Jibril Rajoub on Facebook.

Rajoub came under fire by Jaradat and other Palestinians for saying the Western Wall would remain under Israeli sovereignty in a TV interview with Israel's Channel 2.

"You cannot give away to the unworthy what you don't own personally," Jaradat said in the Facebook status.

He had also criticised Jajoub and "his ilk" in the Fateh leadership for even appearing on Israeli TV whilst calling for a "people's revolution" against the Fatah leadership.

Translation: #FreeNassar

Nassar's detention was also widely viewed within the context of the systematic oppression subjected onto Palestinians by the authority. 

The arrest was condemned by the president of the Union of Palestinian Communities and Organisations in Europe, Fawzi Ismail, who described it as an exasperation of the PA's "framework of 'security coordination' with the Israeli occupation".

Palestinian communist party PFLP also released a statement condemning the PA's "revolving door policy" of collaborating with Israel, which according to the PFLP has "led to the arrest and martyrdom of a number of young activists and resistance strugglers".