by Mahmoud Abu Ghosh
A journalist who said Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh was the “legitimate Palestinian prime minister” has been summoned for interrogation by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority’s American-trained security forces.
Khaled Amayreh, who writes for the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper and is politically affiliated with Hamas, said he was summoned twice in the past few days to the headquarters of the PA Preventive Security Force (PPS) in Hebron.
Amayreh, 55, was questioned about statements he made recently in which he criticized the Western-backed 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 territories they control.
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, accusing the PA of seeking to “terrorize” journalists to prevent them from pursuing their work.
The PA security force, trained by United States Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, has a long history of persecuting journalists who criticize Fatah’s Western-backed autocratic regime.
In a related development, Hamas on Monday accused the PA security forces of waging a security crackdown on Hamas supporters.
Hamas said that PA security forces have summoned dozens of university students and former prisoners for questioning in the past 48 hours, adding that most of those summoned for questioning were from the Hebron area.
The allegation came amid renewed tensions between Hamas and Fatah, despite recent talk about reconciliation between the groups.
Hamas said that since the the last meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo last November, the PA security forces arrested 76 Hamas supporters and summoned 437 others for interrogation.
