Ramallah, 5/9/2014 - The Israeli occupation authorities released last night web activist Suhaib Zahda (31 years old) of Hebron, who had been arrested on Thursday 28/8/2014 at the Container checkpoint for his comments on Facebook, incriminated of representing "incitement against Israelis."
His Israeli lawyer Neri Ramati told MADA that the Ofer Israeli military court decided on Wednesday to release him on the condition of paying a 4,000 NIS bail deposit (around 1,100 USD).
Ramati added that initially the Israeli military court had decided Zahda to pay a 10,000 NIS bail in addition to a ban on accessing Facebook, but he opposed that and in the end the bail was reduced to 4,000 NIS and the Facebook ban was lifted.
Ramati pointed out that this is the first case of formal arrest for writings on Facebook.
Zahda had posted comments on his Facebook page against the commander of the Israeli “Golani” brigade, Ghassan Alian. Alian had been injured during the latest Israeli attack on Gaza and Zahda had wished him to "go to hell," as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday 01/09/2014.
The Israeli authorities tried to justify the arrest by accusing zahda of incitement, but Neri Ramati responded to these claims, that the suspect is Palestinian and is not supposed to show loyalty to Israel. Plus, most of Hebron’s residents do not like the Israelis, as a lot of Israelis do not like the Palestinians.
The Israeli attorney general Yehuda Weinstein approved the investigation with Zahda.
The same Weinstein had ruled out a complaint by an Israeli woman from Tel Aviv against the municipality of Or Yehuda for hanging a banner at the city’s entrance calling for the intensification of the military assault on the Gaza Strip. The banner read: “Israeli soldiers, the residents of Or Yehuda are with you! Crush their mothers and come back safe to your mothers,” as quoted by Haaretz.
Photo By: Ma'an News Agency
