Press freedom under attack in the West Bank and Israel, HRW claims

Human Rights Watch issued a report on Tuesday condemning what it sees as an assault on free expression by the Israeli and Palestinian authorities in Israel and the West Bank.

Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous

The group demanded that the Palestinian Authority cease its criminal prosecution of the journalist Yousef Al Shayeb, who was officially released on bail on Tuesday pending further investigation of his case.

Shayeb was detained last Monday following his coverage of a corruption scandal, which implicated the Foreign Minister Riyad Malki and the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission to France.

Human Rights Watch further condemned two arrests made by the Palestinian Authority’s Preventative Security Forces following comments made by journalists on their private Facebook pages.

One, lecturer and journalist Esmat Abdul-Khaleq, remains in solitary confinement according to local news sources.

The organisation also used the report to highlight what it sees as the unlawful arrest of Adel Rweished, an administrator at Al-Quds University, whom Israeli forces briefly detained on Tuesday during a raid on a campus media centre in the Old City in Jerusalem.