Mahmoud Abu Rahma

On 13 January 2012, human rights defender Mr Mahmoud Abu Rahma was attacked by three unknown armed men in Tal al-Hawa district in Gaza City.

Mahmoud Abu Rahma is director of the Communication and International Relations Unit of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. He had recently written an opinion piece called “The gap between resistance and governance” in which he criticised the Palestinian Government and resistance groups, and accused them of violence, legal violations and of endangering ordinary citizens.

On 13 January 2012, just before midnight, Mahmoud Abu Rahma was walking home from his brother's house in the Tal al-Hawa district in Gaza City when he was attacked by three masked men carrying sharp objects. The perpetrators stabbed Mahmoud Abu Rahma in the back, legs and shoulders. The attackers reportedly attempted to stab him in the chest but Mahmoud Abu Rahma used his laptop to shield himself. The masked men withdrew while shouting death threats and insults at the human rights defender.

Mahmoud Abu Rahma received stitches to his right thigh and left hand, and also sustained injuries to his back as a result of the attack. He was treated in a hospital in Gaza for his wounds and released on 18 January.

This is the second attack on Mahmoud Abu Rahma since the publication of the aforementioned article by Ma'an News Agency on 31 December 2011. On 3 January 2012, he was attacked by an unarmed masked man but he managed to escape unharmed. He has since received death threats, threats and insults to his mobile phone and via e-mail, some of which have called on him to retract the article. Just hours before the attack of 13 January 2012, he had also received a threat.

In the article, which appeared in Arabic on several websites and was later translated into English, Mahmoud Abu Rahma criticised the Palestinian Government saying: “We witnessed, with much agony, the outrageous attack upon free expression and peaceful assembly since March 2011. There are reports of hundreds of cases of torture and abuses. Several people died in detention and under torture in Gaza and the West Bank”.

He also criticised resistance groups for injuring civilians and putting them at risk. He wrote: “Many citizens also fell victims of the continuous negligence of the resistance groups who show little or no care for people's lives and well being, or, worse, fail to take responsibility for shocking acts by their members... The state of carelessness from the part of the resistance is also causing continued victims of the misfiring of home-made rockets that fall on houses inside Gaza. Many of the victims are children and all of them are civilians who happen to be in their homes”.

Front Line Defenders believes that the stabbing of Mahmoud Abu Rahma is directly related to his work in defence of human rights and the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for his physical and psychological integrity.