RAMALLAH, West Bank — The charge of “inciting sectarian strife” has become a sword hanging over the heads of political activists and other citizens who are being arrested for criticizing the government or the security services on social networking websites. As a result, the dominance and influence of the executive power has been reinforced, especially in the long absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council's (PLC) control and the weakness of the judiciary.
Abdullah Nash’at al-Sayed, from the city of Tulkarm north of the West Bank, works as a photographer for weddings and events. Sayed was detained by the Preventive Security Services twice in September, accused by both the Preventive Security Services and the public prosecutor of “inciting sectarian strife” as well as “insulting supreme shrines and defaming, slandering and offending relations with Saudi Arabia.”
