Beirut, Lebanon The ban imposed by the Palestinian Authority on Al Jazeera is part of a broader attempt to silence criticism directed at its security operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to activists and analysts.

The ban came about a month after the Palestinian Authority launched a campaign against a coalition of armed groups calling themselves the Jenin Brigades.

the Groups affiliated with Palestinian factions Such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and even Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority.

Since early December, The Palestinian Authority is besieging the Jenin camp Water and electricity were cut off to most residents in an ostensible attempt to restore “law and order” throughout the West Bank.

However, its indiscriminate tactics in Jenin coincide with a broader attack on freedom of expression, activists and human rights groups told Al Jazeera.

Repression and censorship

Activists and rights groups said that dozens of people were summoned and interrogated – some of whom were beaten – over social media posts opposing the Palestinian Authority operation in Jenin, although prominent Palestinian figures were still able to write posts criticizing the security operation.

Most of those detained were released, but some were forced to upload apology videos, according to human rights groups.

Sanad, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, reviewed and verified three apology videos circulated online.

“There is tension around the PA operation, and people don’t feel safe talking about it or sharing what happened to them when they were arrested,” said Murad Jadallah, an activist with Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group. In the West Bank.

the The Palestinian Authority was born out of the Oslo Accords Between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in 1993. The agreement stipulated that the Palestinian Authority would recognize Israel and eliminate armed Palestinian groups in exchange for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 1999.

However, Israel has used the past 30 years to expand illegal settlements over vast swaths of stolen Palestinian land, nearly tripling the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank.

As an occupying power, it still controls most aspects of Palestinian life and frequently carries out raids, killings, and arrests in the West Bank, even in areas that the Palestinian Authority is supposed to fully control.

Although hopes for statehood have faded, the Palestinian Authority has stuck to its mandate under the Oslo Accords, leading to accusations from many Palestinians that the administration is actively cooperating with Israel to maintain the occupation.

Over the years, the Palestinian Authority has also escalated repression against Palestinian opponents and dissidents. In 2021, The Palestinian Authority arrested critic and activist Nizar Banatwho died in custody.

According to Amnesty International, the Palestinian Authority failed to conduct adequate investigations into his death.

Most recently, on December 28, a sniper shot Shatha al-Sabbagh, a journalist who was speaking to camp residents about the security operation.

Her family blamed the Palestinian Authority forces, but the Palestinian Authority denied responsibility and blamed “outlaws” for her death.

Four days later, the Palestinian Authority banned Al Jazeera – believed to be the most popular media network in the occupied West Bank.

Mounir Nusseibeh, a political analyst at the Palestinian Network, said: “If this decision is implemented, it means that Al Jazeera… will not be able to monitor what it monitors and documents today.”

This will affect the entire Palestinian issue. Al Jazeera… conveys Palestine to the world.”

“The way the Palestinian Authority is dealing with the situation now is that there is only one truth, and that truth is their narrative,” said Al-Haq’s Jadallah.

Misinformation

Some Palestinian Authority officials have claimed that armed groups in the Jenin camp are part of a broader conspiracy backed by Iran or “extremist outlaws” aimed at undermining the Palestinian quest for statehood.

According to Ahmed Muhammad*, an activist who monitors digital freedoms in the Palestinian territories, the PA’s rhetoric aims to link the Jenin Brigades to a foreign conspiracy to discredit them as a legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Muhammad said: “This is a reformulation of Israeli propaganda… which claims that the Palestinians are not acting of their own volition, but based on directives from Iran and that Iran is the biggest bogeyman.”

He added: “There is an advantage in that Iran supports resistance activities in Palestine and oppressive regimes elsewhere, but the Palestinian Authority is trying to claim that it is the one that has the Palestinians in mind and has a pro-Palestinian policy.”

Iran has traditionally provided financial and military aid to Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad – two factions that loosely make up the Jenin Brigades – as part of its broader policy of challenging Israeli and American hegemony in the region.

However, Hamas and PIJ are not puppets, and remain entrenched in their quest to resist Israeli occupation, according to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a UK-based think tank.

Meanwhile, the PA’s main donors are the United States and Europe, whose positions often conflict with broader Palestinian aspirations and views.

Social media platforms, which are seen as close to the Palestinian Authority, shared a video showing four men wearing white pants, white jackets and ill-fitting white hoods on their heads. The men also appeared to be wearing explosive devices on their bodies and claiming that they would blow themselves up if Palestinian Authority security forces entered the Jenin camp.

Some of these Palestinian Authority pages claim that the men belong to an “extremist” battalion called 313, which is also the name of a unit fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Sanad said the video was never uploaded on any social media pages affiliated with the Jenin Brigades and “appears to have been created to mislead the public.”

“There is no battalion officially named the 313th Battalion [in Jenin]“Sanad was found.

Coercion and intimidation

The head of a leading human rights group in the West Bank, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the Palestinian Authority is also forcing civil servants to participate in demonstrations in support of the Jenin operation.

“[Civil servants] They risk being punished if they are considered absent [at these pro-PA protests]The source told Al Jazeera.

“They may be subject to administrative sanctions or summons from the Palestinian Authority security forces.”

Al Jazeera obtained a copy of an official government letter that appears to confirm this claim.

The letter was addressed to the mayor of Masafer Yatta in Hebron, and demanded that some employees not be punished for not attending a demonstration on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on December 24.

As such, the letter notes that employees are usually punished for missing a pro-Palestinian Authority demonstration.

Jadallah, of Al-Haq, added that PA security forces often confiscate the phones of people they interrogate and replace critical social media posts with posts praising the PA and its operation in Jenin.

He added that the Palestinian security forces warned the detainees not to delete new posts immediately upon their release.

The head of the human rights organization also said that the Palestinian Authority is using cybercrime laws – and anti-incitement laws – to justify muzzling freedom of expression.

In 2017, the Palestinian Authority issued – by decree – a cybercrime law that allowed authorities to arrest people on charges of “incitement to hatred” on social media and “disturbing public order.”

Critics of the Internet law said the laws, which were drafted too broadly, could be exploited by the Palestinian Authority to promote electronic surveillance and stifle dissent — a long-standing practice of the Israeli occupation.

The source said: “Laws are being implemented to suppress any criticism of the Jenin operation, especially harsh criticism.”

“If anyone shows explicit support for the Jenin Brigades… they risk being summoned.”