Hamdallah goes ham: Journalist detained for filming Palestine's PM and Palestinians are furious

Palestinians on social media are scurrying to condemn the Ramallah based Palestinian Authority (PA) for arresting a journalist after he had filmed the Palestinian prime minister’s convoy being searched at an Israeli checkpoint on Friday.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was being checked by Israeli forces in Tulkarem city in the northern occupied West Bank when he realised he was being filmed by journalist Jihad Barakat.

According to Bethlehem based Palestinian Maan News Agency, Barakat is going to be detained by the PA until next Sunday.

PA spokesperson Tariq Rishmawi had reportedly denied allegations that Barakat had been detained for filming Hamdallah being searched by Israeli soldiers, though said two youths had been detained for “violating the laws on filming.” 

Rishmawi added that the PA had been monitoring the two youths for “a long period of time” and they had been transferred to interrogation.

He claimed interrogating the journalists is not a violation of freedom of speech or expression.

Palestinians took to Twitter to voice their anger at the PA with hashtag #WheresJihad.

“The Palestinian Government and its security apparatus as usual bullying people,” Bayan Sami tweeted.

Another tweeter from Gaza had referred to the PA as “dirty boys”.

The vast majority of the tweets had also showed a large amount of discontent toward the Ramallah based government for its chokehold on freedom of speech and expression.