Internet & Technology

Electronic Lebanon has finally been incorporated as a special section of the Electronic Intifada website. Our diary section, “Live from Lebanon”, has been extremely popular, offering accounts from Beirut and other cities under bombardment in Lebanon. There has been a lot of media interest in these diaries, and many U.S. news networks are offering reports about voices from the ground and blogs to varying degrees in their reporting. Some networks have been reporting that the phenomenon of blogging from warzones is “new”. This is not the case. Members of the Electronic Intifada team have been pioneering alternative media reporting from Middle Eastern warzones for over 10 years.

EI is an internationally recognized media phenomenon, widely respected for carving out new - and needed - terrain for comprehending the Palestine-Israel conflict from a rich variety of perspectives. In a world of averted gazes, EI continually strives to bring the Palestinian narrative front and center. Palestinian dignity is sustained by the riches of Palestinian culture and history. EI is sustained by your continuing interest, support, and concern for justice.

”A window for you to look in; to see past the walls, barbed wire fences, and the media distortions; to hear from the people in Bethlehem themselves.” Palestinians and internationals living in the Bethlehem region have started a weblog. They want to tell the world what it is like to be living in occupied territory, under an economic siege, encircled by a wall and military checkpoints. For them the new site, Bethlehem bloggers, found at www.bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com, is a portal to communicate to the outside world and tell the stories of their lives in Bethlehem and what it is like to live in a “Palestinian Ghetto.”

The following lists of 2004 most requested EI articles and BY TOPIC reference pages was compiled from electronicIntifada.net webserver statistics recording the period between 1 January and 30 December 2004. This list covers the full range of articles and pages published by EI since 2001, not just those published in 2004. Links open in new windows to allow readers to browse through the list. Compiled by EI’s Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed.

The United States is channeling nearly $4 million through 2006 to promote the development of information and communication technology in the Palestinian Territories. Funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) opened in the Al-Sheikh Commercial Tower in the West Bank city of Ramallah in May and is seeking Palestinian entrepreneurs to partner with. “This state-of-the-art office space offers technology innovators an environment that encourages creativity while meeting their specialized needs for advanced technical support,” said PICTI’s first Chief Executive Officer David Bailey.