Palestinian student involved in an Israeli-Palestinian protest campaign during the recent elections was arrested by the IDF in late January and released four days later without charges, causing activists to suspect that Israel is monitoring the Facebook activity of West Bank activists.

Galib Ishtewi, a 21-year-old student from the Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum east of Nablus, told the “Times of Israel” that some 15 Israeli soldiers stormed his home on January 25 accusing him of stone throwing following a weekly protest organized by Fatah in the village. He said he was watching TV when soldiers entered his home and detained him and his 11-year-old brother.

Occupation Israeli soldiers arresting a child during the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, on January 25, 2013. There have been regular demonstrations in Kafr Qaddum since July, 2011, protesting the blocking of the main road east of the village which used to link it to Nablus. (Photo: Activestills)

Upon his arrest, Ishtewi was asked about his activity on Facebook and that of his fellow villagers. When he denied being active on the social media site or participating in the demonstration, he was taken to the nearby Ariel settlement police station for further interrogation. There, a police interrogator again questioned him about his online activity.

The previous week, a short video featuring Galib Ishtewi was posted on the Facebook page of Real Democracy, an Israeli-Palestinian initiative which called on Israeli citizens to grant their votes on election day to Palestinians living in the West Bank as an act of protest.

Under the title “Galib from Qaddum in an electoral rebellion,” Ishtewi spoke of the weekly protest in his village against the Israeli closure of a road leading to the nearby cities of Nablus and Jenin.

After hearing of the circumstances of Ishtewi’s arrest, member of Knesset Dov Khenin (Hadash) sent a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak on January 27 asking whether the ministry had an official policy of tracking activists’ Facebook activity and whether this policy was implemented in Ishtewi’s case. MK Khenin’s letter was never answered.

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