Muslim Arab Writer Gets Facebook Account Closed For Post Critical of Palestine

Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim who writes for the Jerusalem Post, posted on his Facebook page an article he wrote entitled : The Palestinian Authority's Inconvenient Truths that was published on The Gatestone Institute website.  We're talking about the Palestinian Authority (PA) of so-called 'moderate' Mahmoud Abbas, friend of the West.

In the article, Toameh accuses the PA of a plethora of corruption and embarrassments that it's hiding from the West. Here are a few snippets, or "inconvenient truths" as he puts it:

- Over 100 senior PLO and Fatah officials hold Israeli-issued VIP cards that grant them various privileges denied to most Palestinians. Among these privileges is the freedom to enter Israel and travel abroad at any time they wish. This privileging has existed since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO in 1993.

- Out of the 600 Christians from the Gaza Strip who arrived in the West Bank in the past two weeks to celebrate Christmas, dozens have asked to move to Israel because they no longer feel comfortable living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

[snip]

- Tens of thousands of Palestinian Authority civil servants in the Gaza Strip receive salaries to stay at home and not work. The practice has been in effect since Hamas seized control over the Gaza Strip in 2007. According to Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf, the Palestinian Authority, which is funded mostly by American and European taxpayer money, spends around $120 million each month on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

- Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction has allocated more than one million dollars for celebrations marking the 48th anniversary of the "launching of the revolution" -- a reference to the first armed attack carried out by Fatah against Israel.

Those are just a few mentioned in his commentary.

As you can well imagine, that did not sit well with some individuals who read that post (along with several other ones critical of  Middle Eastern regimes including Jordan), so Facebook closed his account, as FB is apt to do when faced with complaints that are justified or not.  Toameh then contacted Committee For Accuracy in  Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) telling them about his ordeal.

"In the past few days I have been bombarded with dozens of hate and threat messages because of the these postings and articles. Some anti-Israel folks in the UK are now publishing my photo with a Star of David on my forehead."

Not surprising at all.

CAMERA updated their report claiming his Facebook account has been reactivated, sans the PA corruption post. According to Toameh, Hamas and other terrorist groups have FB accounts.  The difference is, they probably don't have a bunch of haters flagging their accounts.

So much for freedom of speech.