Under a barbaric and inhumane siege, which constitutes a crime against humanity to which all of the world powers are party, Hamas is exacerbating the people's suffering by investigating casual meetings [between friends] and attempting to change 100-year-old habits. [Customs of] marriage, dating, and gender-mixing are a matter of social, circumstantial, and status-related conventions, in which the law should not interfere. When married or engaged couples are forced to carry marriage licenses in their pockets, out of fear that some armed [policeman] might burst in on one of their dates and inquire into [the nature of] their relationship, it is a frightening deterioration in the Palestinians' values and lifestyle, which certainly did not exist [previously]. When a [policeman on a] motorcycle pursues a family car in which a woman is sitting beside a man whose arm is resting on the back of her seat, arrests [the family] and takes them to the police [station] – it is a stupid patrol [that is detrimental] to people's lives. When a brother and sister are arrested on their way home at night because they do not have identification cards on them to prove 'their legitimate relationship,' it is expressly Taliban-like behavior.
"We are talking about a long series of deeds, from the indirect coercion of female students to wear a hijab (without administrative memos or written orders), to the persecution [of girls] in restaurants and cafes, to the ban on smoking hookahs and 'searches' for immoral pictures on private computers.
