West Bank mayor indicted by military prosecutors on charges of incitement

Military prosecutors indict a West Bank mayor, accusing him of incitement on social media, police say in a statement.

West Bank cops arrested Biddya Mayor Zahir Abdelhadi last month for posts he made on Facebook in apparent praise of Hamas’s October 7 attack. They accuse the politician of attempting to influence popular opinion in the municipality through posts that “harm the public order.”

Police say the defendant posted a video on October 7 depicting armed men in masks, accompanied by a song with lyrics in Arabic vowing a “people’s war” against a generalized enemy.

They also cite a photo he posted of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin alongside PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, with a caption hailing unity between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.

Police intend to detain the mayor until the end of court proceedings, says a police spokesman.

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