Freedom House's annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World, reported that civil liberties declined due to the shooting deaths of Palestinian civilians by Palestinian security personnel; the summary trials and executions of alleged collaborators by the Palestinian Authority; extrajudicial killings of suspected collaborators by militias; and the apparent official encouragement of Palestinian youths to confront Israeli soldiers, thus placing them directly in harm's way.

Activists say there is a growing crackdown on writers who criticize the Palestinian Government. According to Executive Director of Advancing Human Rights David Keyes Anas Awwad, a 26-year-old Palestinian activist, was sentenced in absentia by a Palestinian court in Nablus, the West Bank, to one year in prison for “extending his tongue” against the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Facebook. Keyes also states that Palestinian blogger Jamal Abu Rihan was arrested by the Palestinian Authority for starting a Facebook campaign called “The People Want an End to Corruption,” he was indicted under the charges of“extending his tongue” against the Palestinian leadership.

West Bank university lecturer Ismat Abdul-Khaleq was arrested for criticizing Abbas on Facebook. Subsequently, agents belonging to the PA’s Preventive Security Service in Ramallah arrested Tarek Khamis, who works for Palestinian Zaman Press news agency. He was detained for criticizing the Palestinian Authority’s treatment of Ms. Abdul-Khaleq and for the criticizing the clampdown on journalists in the West Bank. According to David Keyes, George Canawati, the director of a Bethlehem radio station and the journalist Rami Samar were detained for posting criticisms of the Palestinian Authority on Facebook.

Threats of death were made against Minister Nabil Shaath for planning to participate in a conference in Italy attended by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom by the Jenin Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. They declared, "He will be sentenced to death if he enters. The decision cannot be rescinded, we call upon his bodyguards to abandon his convoy in order to save their lives."

A Hamas-run council in the West Bank came under international criticism for barring an open-air music and dance festival, on the basis of being "against Islam".

February 2016, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has issued report documenting freedom of expression violations in both West Bank and Gaza strip. The Euro-Med report, "Strangulation Twice: the Oppressive Practices of Palestinian Security Services," documents 1,274 arbitrary detentions in the West Bank in 2015 and 1,089 summonses to appear in front of the police or “interior security.” Most of these actions by the Palestinian Authority targeted individuals affiliated with Hamas or who opposed PA policies. In Gaza, 117 arbitrary detentions and 98 orders to appear were attributed last year to Hamas, which governs the Strip. Like their PA counterparts, the security forces primarily targeted political opponents. The monitor said that the number of human rights violations committed by PA authorities in the West Bank were significantly greater than those for which Hamas was responsible. However, both organizations are guilty of censorship and oppression. The Euro-Med monitor called both sides, the PA and Hamas, to issue a clear and binding resolution mandating freedom of expression and prohibiting all forms of abusive detention.

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