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Secrecy behind Palestinian cybercrimes law stirs suspicion

Civil society organizations are wondering why the government will not show them the final changes to a draft cybercrimes law expected to be ratified within days.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SARAH BENHAIDA 
A Palestinian man works in front of a laptops at Unit One start up in Gaza City, on April 18, 2015. Israel controls all of Gaza's cable communications which are routed through the Jewish state, and also controls the bandwidth of its Internet lines, meaning that it has the technical ability to completely sever the territory's digital link to the rest of the world. In the perpetually-connected world of technology, having electricity is also crucial but far from certain
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GAZA CITY, Gaza — Despite widespread objections by Palestinian civil society organizations (CSOs), as well as journalists' and lawyers' unions, a highly controversial cybercrimes draft law appears headed for ratification.

Those who oppose the legislation say it is vague, it threatens to restrict freedom of opinion and the press, and it would impose draconian penalties for violations. At least, those were the problems the CSOs found the last time they saw the draft.

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