Special to WorldTribune.com

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority has blocked access to dissident
websites.

Officials said PA security services ordered Internet providers to block
access to dissident or independent Palestinian news websites.

The officials said the order came directly from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas through Attorney General Ahmed Mughni, alarmed by the rise in criticism of the West Bank regime.

“The attorney general is responsible,” PA Communications Minister
Mashour Abu Daka said. “He made up his own laws to justify what was solely his decision.”

On April 24, Abu Daka told the Palestinian news agency Maan that Mughni ordered leading communications provider PalTel to block dissident websites.

The minister, calling it illegal, said he opposed the PA directive.

“Blocking websites is against the public interest,” Abu Daka said. “I
oppose it without exception.”

Mughni has been cited as ordering the arrest in 2012 of several bloggers
and journalists critical of Abbas. Mughni has not confirmed the reported
Internet crackdown.

Maan reported that eight news websites, which focus on the ruling Fatah
movement, were no longer available in what marked the first sustained PA
crackdown on the Internet.

The websites were identified as Amad, Fatah Voice, Firas Press, In
Light Press, Karama Press, Kofia Press, Milad News and Palestine Beituna.
“Paltel Group has no choice except to abide by those official, judicial,
regulatory and legal orders on the basis or allegations related to competent
jurisdictions among those official bodies and entities,” PalTel chief
executive officer Amar Aker said. “Our role is to implement those orders
and instructions and not to enter into such matters that the company cannot
deal with or accept to be part of.”

Officials said four of the targeted websites were regarded as serving
the interests of former PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan. In 2011, Dahlan,
a leading critic of Abbas, was expelled from Fatah and forced to flee the
West Bank.

“This is unprecedented for them [PA],” Jillian York, a director at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, said. “It is troubling because they had done
a relatively good job at keeping the Internet open until now.”

  Amad, Attorney General Ahmed Mughni, Communications Minister Abu Daka, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fatha Voice, Firas Press, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority blocking dissident websit, Palestinian Authority blocks websites critical of leaders, PalTel