Abbas government silences critics

Occupied Jerusalem:  The government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has moved to silence critics, raising new concerns about freedom of expression in the West Bank.

Abbas' communications minister, Mashour Abu Daqa, said late on Thursday that the attorney-general's office ordered several websites shut down over the past six months.

The sites belong to an Abbas rival, former Gaza strongman Mohammad Dahlan.

Security forces have also arrested four journalists and an anti-corruption activist who have criticised Abbas and other Palestinian officials on Facebook.

The Abbas government has also sued two of the journalists and the activist on charges they defamed the president and other senior officials.

Palestinian media in the West Bank are for the most part official or sympathetic to the Palestinian National Authority, forcing West Bankers to voice their dissenting opinions on Face-book. The West Bank crackdown has been criticised within the PNA and in Washington, too.

"We are concerned about any uses of technology that would restrict access to information," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday. "We've had these concerns in other parts of the world, and we wouldn't want to see the PA going in the direction that some of those regimes have gone in."