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.