“The internet, with its ability to transcend borders, distance and government censorship, has become the preferred medium of information exchange for local Palestinians and foreign activists alike. Notable among the online activist initiatives is the site known as The Electronic Intifada. The site has been credited with bringing increased prominence and visibility to the Palestinian cause in the media in recent years”, reports Laila El-Haddad for Al-Jazeera.net. Read more about Intifada spurs Palestine internet boom
Launched in February 2003 to “offer a humanitarian perspective during the then-looming conflict” in Iraq, Electronic Iraq (eIraq) is the project of two groups who will be familiar to many PN readers - Voices in the Wilderness (US) and Electronic Intifada. Peace News caught up with Nigel Parry, co-founder of both projects, to discuss the ethos behind this online information project. Peace News is a progressive publication that has been publishing since 1936. Read more about War is our Common Enemy
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. Read more about Palestinians find their voice online
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. Read more about Palestinian journalist argues for one state
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. Read more about EI's Ali Abunimah speaks on Democracy Now!
Since Israel began building a security fence to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank, Palestinians have labelled the project an “apartheid wall.” According to the Electronic Intifada, a popular Web site for pro-Palestinian activists, this is because the fence is “a colonial project that embodies within it the long-term policy of occupation, discrimination and expulsion.” The Post argues that our description of Israel’s Wall as “a colonial project” was “nonsensical” and that Israel is building the Wall “to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank”. Read more about Another reason to build the fence: Separating Israel from the West Bank will help prevent attacks such as yesterday's bus bombing
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. Read more about Cyberspace: a 21st century diwan
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.” Read more about Business: Stephen Roeder, San Diego State University
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?) Read more about The Electronic Intifada; Holt uncensored: alternative sources for news
The Palestinian National Authority, however, links to no Israeli sites at its official Web home (www.pna.org). The Israeli Government Gateway (www.info.gov.il/eng/), meanwhile, had no links to Palestinian sites that we could find. The Electronic Intifada site (electronicintifada.net) linked to Israeli newspapers such as Haaretz (www.co.haaretz.co.il) and the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com); the latter, meanwhile, points to a variety of Palestinian sites, including some that appear to support terrorist groups. Read more about Web Watch: Dispatches From The Middle East
