The Palestinian Authority mayor of the city of Bidya, near Ariel in central Samaria, was charged with online incitement in an Israeli military court on Wednesday after being arrested on Feb. 19, authorities announced.
The Palestinian, identified in Hebrew media as Zahir Abdelhadi, was detained last month for “serious incitement against the State of Israel, IDF soldiers and security forces,” the Israel Police said in a statement.
Following a “thorough investigation” by officers of the Modi’in Illit police station and the Military Prosecutor’s Office, Abdelhadi was charged with attempting to influence popular opinion in the municipality through posts that “harm the public order.”
Among other incitement, he stands accused of posting “words of praise, sympathy or support for a hostile organization, its actions and its goals.”
Local media reported that Abdelhadi posted a picture of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin alongside PLO chairman Yasser Arafat with a caption urging unity between the rival Fatah and Hamas terrorist groups.
In addition, during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he shared a video showing masked and armed terrorists, accompanied by a song in Arabic calling for a “people’s war” against the “enemy.”
The Israel Defense Forces filed 303 indictments for online incitement to terrorism in the Judea and Samaria territories last year, compared to only some 60 to 70 per year before Oct. 7, it revealed in late January.
A special division was set up under the military’s Central Command to tackle online incitement in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Ynet reported. The division is led by members of the Military Prosecution in the Judea and Samaria Division, along with intelligence personnel and operational officers, under OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.
While Jerusalem’s efforts are bearing fruit with a reported decrease in incitement, this is partly due to Palestinians learning how to word their messages more carefully to avoid legal action, as well as opting for social-media platforms that are more difficult to monitor, an official told Ynet.