From the Editors

Highlighting important stories on and off The Electronic Intifada.

Palestinians find their voice online

Mark Glaser
15 October 2003

Palestinian Internet users have had many choices when it came to staying up with the conflict with Israel on Arab-language news sites. Now there are a growing number of English-language sites that emphasize the Palestinian position, and are carrying that position to a far wider audience.  Online-only news sites such as the Palestine Chronicle and Palestine Monitor provide eyewitness accounts to flare-ups throughout the region. Then there are news portals such as Electronic Intifada that combine original commentaries and news with views from other outlets.

Palestinian journalist argues for one state

Bree Bang-Jensen
18 September 2003

Students packed the Scheuer room on Monday to hear Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah argue for a one-state solution to the beleaguered Middle East peace process. Abunimah said he regretted the current media focus on whether killing Arafat was legitimate rather than how to handle the “separation wall” proposed by many Israelis. He supplemented his presentation with slides from his Web site, The Electronic Intifada. He supplemented his presentation with slides from his Web site, The Electronic Intifada.

EI's Ali Abunimah speaks on Democracy Now!

13 September 2003

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared no one will “kick me out” after the Israeli Security Cabinet authorized the army to “remove” him. Meanwhile the Jerusalem Post called for Arafat’s death. The Israeli government authorized the army last night to “remove” Yasser Arafat and gave its security services a green light to move against the 74 year-old Palestinian leader “in a manner, and at a time, of its choosing.” Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah spoke with host Amy Goodman in Democracy Now!’s New York studios.

Cyberspace: a 21st century diwan

Giles Trendle
1 September 2002

Within cyberspace there is a growing network of individuals and groups coalescing around the key demands for an end to Israeli occupation of Arab territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. This network constitutes a ‘swarm’, an Internet-related term referring to a global body of people with a common cause using the Internet to share information, mobilise support and coordinate direct action online and, at times, on the streets…. While pro-Israeli activists may be attempting to mobilise their own ‘swarm’ in order to defend and enforce the existing balance of power in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the potential size and power of a pro-Palestinian ‘swarm’ is worth considering.

Business: Stephen Roeder, San Diego State University

22 July 2002

In this profile, under a section titled “Favorite Web sites”, Roeder includes EI and states: “Palestinian viewpoints are not adequately presented in popular news media in the U.S. This is a source presenting the Palestinian viewpoints.”

The Electronic Intifada; Holt uncensored: alternative sources for news

Pat Holt
22 March 2002

Of course this “resource for countering myth, distortion and spin from the Israeli media war machine” is going to have a pro-Palestinian spin, but because of that, it was a site to check on Arab-American reactions to the 9/11 attacks, violence against Arab Americans and Arab- and Muslim-owned buildings, and answers to such rumors as those alleging that the Reuters footage of celebrating Palestinians after the 9/11 attacks was old film from a different event. (It wasn’t, say the editors, but why didn’t American media also show the one million Palestinian school children who observed a minute of silence in support and sympathy for American victims?)

Activists Spend Sunday Morning Strategizing

Hanaa L. Rifaey
31 July 2001

Abunimah, writer and commentator on the Middle East and Arab-American issues, was refreshingly optimistic about the increasing Arab presence in the media. To make his point, he cited the Palestine Media Watch group (www.pmwatch.org), the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition’s website and media group (www.alawda.org), the “Electronic Intifada” he helped to create (www.electronicintifada.net), and the rising number of letters to the editor and opinion pieces being published in newspapers publicizing Arab perspectives. Although Abunimah was optimistic, he was not unrealistic, noting that this was not enough and we can do even more. He advised the audience to focus more on the local level with grassroots media activism dealing with local media and presenting local angles on national and international stories. Abunimah concluded by declaring that we cannot stay silent because “the cost of silence is too great.”

Time to expose Israeli propaganda network

Linda S. Heard
20 August 2002

The Internet, however, has witnessed a plethora of pro-Palestinian websites springing up, such as the highly professional and committed Electronic Intifada, Palestine Media Watch and Ramallah On-line. These sites offer the latest news on the ground from the Palestinian territories, up-to-date articles, day-to-day accounts of life under occupation as well as historical facts. These pro-Palestinian websites also organise campaigns to get their message across in the most effective way possible, without using HonestReporting-type intimidation tactics. Visitors to the websites are urged to provide moral support to courageous reporters like Robert Fisk, Suzanne Goldenberg, Amira Hass, and Gideon Levy.

Opinion Context

Rina Jimenez-David
19 September 2001

ONE of the most provocative images in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 tragedy was that of young Palestinians cheering and celebrating allegedly upon hearing news of the horror that visited Manhattan and the Pentagon. Nigel Parry, a writer on Mideast affairs who has lived for some time in the West Bank, offers to place this disturbing scene in context….

A story of conflict: coverage of fighting in the Middle East has brought war to many newsrooms

Abe Aamidor
1 February 2003

There’s one thing top editors and executives at major media outlets in North America seem to agree on: No area of international reporting receives more scrutiny - and more complaints — than coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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