this state of affairs

[jri09joru 0]

Journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh of the year-long sentence for “insulting†Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on

Facebook.Fearing a backlash and denying personal involvement in the

case,

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, Abbas decided to magnanimously “pardon†Hamamreh. But Abbas needn’t have

feared,

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. He is the darling of free world opinion – regardless of the incitement

he promotes and the freedoms he stifles. His excesses never resonate in overseas

media.His term of office expired years ago, but he is still widely

regarded as a democratically elected leader. Nonetheless, in Abbas’s

pseudo-democracy all that it took to convict Hamamreh for “spreading seeds of

hate†and “publishing false information†was an image shared on Facebook that

likened Abbas to a Syrian TV villain.The fact that Hamamreh did not

actually do hard time is immaterial. An intimidating message was dispatched to

members of the press and Internet users. They are being carefully

monitored.It is an oft-sent message,

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. A day after Hamamreh’s sentencing,

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,

Salfit-resident because he

clicked “Like†on a Facebook status critical of a PA official,

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. He was sentenced

to six months.Last February, Anas Awwad was sentenced in Nablus to a

year’s imprisonment for posting a photo depicting Abbas as Real Madrid soccer

player,

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. He too was magnanimously pardoned by Abbas.This is hardly new

and hardly typical only of Abbas’s tenure,

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. When his predecessor Yasser Arafat

ruled the roost things were not different. Journalists were hounded for printing

uncomplimentary photos of Arafat or for quoting him below the fold on the front

page. This was considered insulting and insults are counted as

crimes.Nor are such concepts unique to the PA. They are rampant

throughout the Arab realm – even in post-Arab Spring days. Thus Egypt’s

prosecutor-general has ordered the arrest of the country’s best-known satirist,

Bassam Youssef, for poking fun at President Mohamed Morsi. He was, meanwhile,

freed on bail,

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.Youssef hosts a weekly prime-time offering, El-Bernameg

(“The Showâ€), aired each Friday on a private satellite channel.His

outstanding comedic specialty is mimicking Morsi’s speech and gestures. Besides

being hounded for his alleged disrespect for Morsi, Youssef is also being

accused of “insulting Islam.†This is nothing to be scoffed at in a country

where the Muslim Brotherhood holds sway.The aforementioned cases are all

petty, vindictive and geared more than all else to warn the citizenry and deter

more serious dissenters. They all point to the abysmal absence of free

expression in this region, with the marked exception much-maligned

Israel.Despite the outward trappings of democracy, this state of affairs

belies the impression that our neighbors are fast internalizing the values of

civil liberties. The freedoms to “Like,†upload, share, opine, report and

publish are intrinsic components of the most elementary freedom of expression.

No wonder it is enshrined in the First Amendment to the US

Constitution.The arbitrary manner in which anyone can be accused of

injuring a leader’s honor – and the very fact that this at all constitutes a

felony – is hardly conducive to fostering the public climate that would lead the

populace to welcome and sustain democracy. Defending rights is not a simple or

self-evident process even in the most seasoned and stable of democracies. It

becomes all the more crucial in societies where private militias and corrosive

cronyism either terrorize or buy off whoever does not run with the

pack.Therefore, the perceived generosity of spirit displayed by Abbas

when he deigned to pardon his “insulters†in no way mitigates the travesty of

trampling on basic freedoms.When all is said and done, what stood

between persecuted Facebook users and prolonged terms behind bars was the

caprice or cynical calculation of one chief.The fact that Abbas posed as

the good guy doesn’t diminish the fact that in his latifundia it is a severely

punishable crime to offend him.Abbas has not faced his electorate for a

long time and elections do not anyhow on their own suffice for democracy.

Without undeviating devotion to fundamental freedoms, the façade of democracy is

nothing but hollow hype.

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