Did you ever get the urge to go beyond just flaming someone who got on your case on Facebook, or elsewhere on the Internet for that matter, and wished you had a police force all your own you could use to put that person in his or her place?
If you happen to be Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, you can do that!
One of the perks of being the head of the PA is that when, say, a pesky woman named Ismat Abdul Khaliq posts a number of insulting comments, accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of betrayal and calling for disbanding the Palestinian Authority, you can call your Attorney General Ahmad al-Maghni and sic him on the offending flamer.
The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported Monday that Al-Maghni cited poor Ismat as posting: “Yes to bringing down the traitor Mahmoud Abbas,” “Abbas is the fascist,” and “Abbas has held a party of immorality and shame at the blood of martyrs.”
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which has been protesting the arrest of one of their own, Yousef al-Shayeb, by the same Attorney General last week, says Ismat Abdul Khaliq is not a member of the union.
Late Sunday, the Palestinian Authority freed journalist Tareq Khamis, who works for Zaman press, after questioning him a spokesman for the PA security forces told Ma’an. Khamis had been detained in al-Bireh and brought in for questioning in connection with the case of… Ismat Abdul Khaliq.
The arrest of Shayeb, who works for a Jordanian newspaper “Al-Ghad,” followed a complaint of slander and defamation filed by the Palestinian ambassador to France and his deputy and Foreign Minister Riyad Malki against Shayeb, after he published a story in January accusing the ambassador of corruption and the foreign minister of covering up for him.