Within an hour of her Facebook post about the character of Zakaria Zubeidi, one of six Palestinian prisoners who recently escaped from Gilboa prison and among the four subsequently recaptured, Facebook had banned a journalist and a political activist based in Jerusalem, Orly Noy for three days for violating their “community guidelines.”
“I wasn’t particularly surprised. I knew that many Israelis would promptly report it and get it wiped. That’s because I insist on seeing Zubeidi and his comrades as freedom fighters and not as terrorists. And I insist on providing the context for Zubeidi’s tragic, heroic path through life,” she wrote in an article published by Middle East Eye.
In the post removed by Facebook, Noy called Zubeidi a hero.
“Not just because he fought for his people’s freedom, but also because every Palestinian who survives the occupation and persists in continuing to live is a hero – even if they never throw a single stone,” she says.
Zubeidi who was shot in the leg when he threw stones at Israeli soldiers in 1989, at age 13, is considered a “symbol of the Intifada”, and was on Israel’s most-wanted list for several years.
