PA forces summon critical Palestinian journalist

A Palestinian journalist who said Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh was the “legitimate Palestinian prime minister” has been summoned for interrogation by Palestinian Authority security forces.

Khaled Amayreh, who writes for the Egyptian Al- Ahram Weekly newspaper and is affiliated with Hamas, said he was summoned twice in the past few days to the headquarters of the PA Preventive Security Service in Hebron.

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Amayreh, 55, was questioned about statements he made recently in which he criticized the PA leadership and described Haniyeh as the legitimate prime minister.

The Palestinian Journalists Forum condemned the summoning of Amayreh, saying it was in the context of the PA’s crackdown on freedom of expression in the West Bank.

The group said the PA security officers told the journalist that he would be summoned for questioning every day because of his statements and writings.

According to the journalist forum, Amayreh has been asked to report again to the Preventive Security Service in Hebron on Tuesday for further questioning.

“We call on all legal institutions and media organizations to raise their voice against this systematic violation of the freedom of expression,” the forum said. It also accused the PA of seeking to “terrorize” journalists to prevent them from pursuing their work.

In a related development, Hamas on Monday accused the PA security forces of waging a security crackdown on Hamas supporters in the West Bank.

Hamas said that PA security forces have summoned dozens of university students and former prisoners for questioning in the past 48 hours. Most of those summoned for questioning were from the Hebron area, it said.

The allegation came amid growing renewed tensions between Hamas and Fatah, despite the talk about reconciliation between them.

Hamas said that since the the last meeting between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo in November, the PA security forces arrested 76 Hamas supporters and summoned 437 others for interrogation.