 Two days later he also gave a talk on ""Human rights challenges in the Palestinian territories"" at a seminar organized by "The Australian Human Rights Centre".Abu Toameh is a staunch defender of freedom of speech and has criticized the Palestinian Authority for arresting and harassing Palestinian journalists in the West Bank.In 2009, Abu Toameh found that a minority of people who describe themselves as “pro-Palestinian" on American college campuses held the view that their political activities were "not about supporting the Palestinians as much as it is about promoting hatred for the Jewish state."