On May 29, 2024, Israeli security forces arrested Mahmoud Fatafta, a Palestinian columnist and political commentator, at an Israel Defense Forces checkpoint near the West Bank village of Abu Dis as he was driving with his son to the town of Tarqumiyah, northwest of Hebron, according to news reports, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, and the Palestinian press freedom group MADA.
According to the same reports and Fatafta’s brother Hassan, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, Fatafta’s 10-year-old son was left at the checkpoint until a relative came from Ramallah to pick him up.
Fatafta, who is also a professor of politics and media at the Arab American University in Ramallah and the Palestinian Technical University Khadoury, often appears on TV and radio to comment on the ongoing war in Gaza and regularly contributes columns and commentary to the Wattan Media Network, among other outlets. On the May 15 anniversary of the Nakba, the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Fatafta wrote a column accusing Israel of denying the existence of the Nakba and saying that Palestinians will no longer be victims of weakness and marginalization.
Fatafta also provides commentary on his personal Facebook account, which has nearly 5,000 followers. The last post prior to his arrest included a quote by Egyptian scholar Abdul Wahab al-Mesiri and read “the more brutal the colonizer becomes, the nearer its end is.”
Fatafta’s wife, Rasha, told CPJ via messaging app in November 2024 that her husband was charged with incitement over social media posts, but did not specify which ones.
She said that her husband was initially held at a police station in the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, before he was transferred to Ofer prison in the West Bank.
In April 2026, CPJ contacted Fatafta’s son, Sharaf, who said that his father is currently held in Nafha/Ganot prison, and confirmed that he has not been sentenced, with his court hearing on April 15, 2026 delayed to May 17, 2026.
CPJ emailed the Israeli Prison Service for comment on the case but received no response.