Gaza and technology

London Review of Books, If Israel were smart; Sara Roy on Gaza, Vol. 39 No. 12, 15 June 2017, pages 19-20

"Gaza has a talented, tech-savvy population; if ever there were peace, an American investor said, ‘Gaza’s internet sector would become another India.’ The number of internet users in Gaza is reportedly equal to that of Tel Aviv, and a small number are already subcontracting for companies in India, Bangladesh and Israel."

'Hamas blames Israel for assassination of drone chief'

aljazeera.com, Hamas blames Israel for assassination of drone chief, 18 Dec 2016 "Palestinian group says Zawari was part of its military wing for 10 years and vowed revenge against "the Zionist enemy"."

#Gaza - Round-up of Reporting

For info purposes, here is a brief collection of links/images relating to the current situation in #Gaza.














 aljazeera.com, Al-Qassam Brigade: We have kidnapped an Israeli soldier #Gaza #Israel. Is this a game changer?

BBC World Service, Newshour, Lyse Doucet, Audio Postcard from Gaza

Telegraph, Gaza conflict: Broken by Israeli barrage, the people of Shejaiya flee as homes are laid waste  

IBT, #OpSaveGaza: Anonymous Takes Down 1,000 Israeli Government and Business Websites


 

Facebook: Palestine Solidarity Egypt:













Daily Star, NBC Pull Gaza Reporter after Massacre Report  

IBT, Hamas 'Gives Gazans Guidelines For Reporting Israeli Attacks on Social Media' "The Hamas interior ministry website statement, issued along with an instructional video, said: "The Information Department of the Ministry of the Interior and National Security has instructed activists on social media websites, particularly Facebook, to correct some of the commonly used terms as they cover the aggression taking place in the Gaza Strip.... [and] to use the proper terminology, in order to play their part in strengthening the home front and in properly conveying information worldwide.""

Sydney Morning Herald, Israeli propaganda war hits social media, 18 Jul 2014

gulfnews.com, Gaza stories that have gone viral on social media

al-Qassam hacking

Infosecurity - American Express joins the ranks of US banks attacked by al-Qassam group: "On Thursday last week the American Express website went offline for a couple of hours during a DDoS attack by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters in pursuance of their ongoing protest against the Innocence of Muslims video."

Hamas Vows Crackdown On Collaborators With Israel

al-monitor.com, Hamas Vows Crackdown On Collaborators With Israel, "Communication with the agents takes place with utmost secrecy for fear of exposure. Israeli intelligence has taken advantage of the spread and easy use of mobile devices and the internet, which provide cheap security compared to other means. "The language of communication between an agent and his Israeli recruiter is usually "Arabic and Hebrew." Also, a "code" is used to denote specific words, including special numbers and encrypted names. The agents send urgent, regular and secret information using the Internet, mainly via MSN and email, or dead drops."

Hamas military chief "received draft proposal for a ceasefire agreement" hours before his death

BBC Newshour ‏@BBCNewshour #Israeli negotiator - #Hamas military chief "received draft proposal for a ceasefire agreement" hours before his death. via Twitter

Gaza Youth's Manifesto for Change

Observer, Gazan youth issue manifesto to vent their anger with all sides in the conflict, 2 Jan 2011 "Gaza Youth's Manifesto for Change is an extraordinary, impassioned cyber-scream in which young men and women from Gaza – where more than half the 1.5 million population is under 18 – make it clear that they've had enough."

The full statement can be found posted here: Guerrilla News, Gaza Youth Breaks Out (GYBO) Gaza’s Youth Manifesto for Change!

A Facebook page is here: Gaza Youth Breaks Out (GYBO)

Gaza

eurasiareview.com, No Al Qaeda Groups Operating In Strip, Gaza Govt Says, 24 Nov 2010: "Al-Qaeda has no foothold in the Gaza Strip and reports suggesting it does only help Israel justify its crimes against the Palestinians living there, the Hamas-led government said Tuesday."

Gaza

Israel Defense Forces, ISA: Hamas Turning Gaza into Islamic Sharia Law State, 1 Nov 2010: "The Israel Security Agency (ISA) reported last week that Hamas began to intensify its use of the Internet for spreading Islamic values and religion, in an effort to shape the Gaza Strip as it wants it, according to the spirit of the strategic Islamization process plan gradually imposed, in order to turn Gaza into a state governed by Islamic religious law."

'The Laptop James Bonds'

Neal Ungerleider, Esquire blogs, The Politics blog, The Laptop James Bonds, 22 Sep 2010 "For all their commitment to destroying modern society, jihadists are surprisingly fluent in social media, organizing over an extensive network of comment boards and chat rooms. Somalia's al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have YouTube accounts, Hezbollah has an Internet television channel, and Hamas posts to Twitter. While America's intelligence services monitor some of these forums, a loose coalition of thrill-seeking, all-American bloggers is helping keep the rest of us safe by exposing terrorist plots — despite threats to their own lives."

Facebook, Palestine and Israel

ikhwanweb [Muslim Brotherhood Official English site], Israel turns to Facebook to recruit informers, 17 Aug 2010

"According to the Palestinian resistance, Hamas, Israel has been using the social networking website Facebook for recruiting spies. Israel has been notorious for its network of informers in the West bank and Gaza in an effort to overturn the activities of Hamas.

"Users are led to believe that the Israeli intelligence knows personal information about the user pressuring them into relaying any possible information which may help Israel. In all reality, all those who log in easily access the information as it is posted for all to read."

Rap in Gaza

Associated Press, Wary of Islamic Hamas rulers, rappers keep quiet profile in the Gaza Strip, 29 Jul 2010 "Hamas police broke up a show in March that contained a rap act. Police said the event lacked permits, but the rappers took it as a cue to keep their heads down. While underground, the rappers distribute songs on the Internet and perform at events organized by international organizations, which they say keeps authorities at bay."

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WOCMES 2

As part of a session on Palestine/Internet: On-line Imagination, Activism and Archiving here at WOCMES, Miriyam Aouragh from Oxford Internet Institute discussed “Cyber Intifada: Palestinian Activism in the Age of Web 2.0”. There was a lot to pack into a 20' slot, so I'm going to check out her forthcoming book Palestine Online - Transnationalism, Communications and the Reinvention of Identity (IB Tauris) when it emerges. Only drawback: the book is listed at £56.50 in hardback only (according to the catalogue link), which doesn't lend itself to accessibility or limited budgets. Hopefully it'll make a cheaper paperback edition, so we can all read about this important research.

There were some other papers relating to this blog in the session: May Farah explored “Virtual Nationalism”, based on fieldwork in Lebanon and elsewhere - I'd like to read more on that subject.

The issue of archiving came up in Helga Tawil-Souri's paper “Creating a Digital Palestine”, which discussed palestineremembered.com (this is a useful resource that I have previously recommended to students>. Archiving is an inceasingly important issue, that I have referred to in my own work, and will be discussing tomorrow.

Related to this, Laila Shereen Sakr videolinked a paper “On Archiving Gaza” - there were some technical difficulties in the presentation, and I'd have liked to have heard more: she is involved in some very interesting work, notably R-Shief. There are some more tech/net related papers in the next few days, which I'll be attending.

Gaza water-pipe ban

Diaa Hadid and Ibrahim Barzak, AP, Some Gaza women smolder over Hamas' water-pipe ban, 18 Jul 2010

"Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending plainclothes agents through popular beachside spots Sunday to enforce the edict. Some women in the Palestinian territory are grumbling." Internet cafe link to this story of "'hubble-bubble' trouble" in Gaza.

Al-Fateh children's website reviewed

Yohanan Manor and Ido Mizrahi, Hamas's Web School for Suicide Bombers, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010, pp. 31-40 "All states use education as a medium to encourage responsible behavior in their children, at least in part to develop a law-abiding, civic-minded citizenry. Authoritarian regimes have a history of distorting this trust, often turning schools into places of indoctrination for a state or religious ideology. The Palestinians have, for some time now, created an educational system exemplifying this indoctrinational approach: Their textbooks deny Jewish and Israeli legitimacy within historic Palestine, demonize Jews and Israelis, discourage compromise or negotiated peace, and glorify violent struggle to achieve what are often termed "Palestinian aspirations." Since coming to power through elections in early 2006 and following its military coup in Gaza in June 2007, Hamas has continued this path of indoctrination, utilizing its popular children's website, Al-Fateh."

Note on the writers' perspective: "Yohanan Manor, chairman of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, is the author of "Arabs and Palestinians in Israeli School Textbooks" in Korinman and Laughland, eds., Israel on Israel (Valentine, 2008). Ido Mizrahi is research project coordinator at the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education."

Hamas

Arutz Sheva, Hamas Accuses Israel of Blackmail by Internet, 28 Apr 2010 "Hamas has accused Israeli intelligence agents of using the telephone and Internet to blackmail Gaza Arabs into cooperating with Israeli efforts to infiltrate the Hamas terrorist network."

Hip-hop stopped in Gaza

meedan, Hamas breaks up hip-hop concert for being "immoral", 26 Apr 2010, "According to one of the dancers of B Boy Gaza group, police forces have broken up the concert under the pretext of hip-hop dancing being "immoral"; shouting "the show is over" at the audience." Also see associated comments.

Hamas video of Gilad Schalit

Ben Hubbard, AP, Hamas releases cartoon about captured Israeli, 25 Apr 2010 "Hamas released an animated film Sunday bearing a grisly message for Israel: If it doesn't meet the Islamic militant group's demands, an Israeli soldier it has held for nearly four years could return home in a coffin.

"The short but sophisticated cartoon - which depicts Sgt. Gilad Schalit's aging father wandering empty streets with a picture of his son and ends with the words "There is still hope" - is the latest product of Hamas' growing media machine."

Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, Analysis: Hamas’s Schalit film – cynical and smart, 26 Apr 2010 "While the movie is hard to watch, it does accurately show how Israeli leaders – including former prime minister Ehud Olmert, opposition leader Tzipi Livni and current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – have promised to do all they can to secure Schalit’s release. This movie is a reminder of that promise."

aljazeera.com, 3D Hamas Video Shows Shalit in Captivity as Father Ages, 26 Apr 2010 "The Ezzeddine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, published Sunday a computer animated video entitled "The Sentiment in the Zionist Society regarding Shalit," threatening that captured Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit will share the same fate as Ron Arad should not progress be made in talks. Arad is an Israeli pilot who went missing when he flew a mission over southern Lebanon in 1986."

Here's the video:



Also see



Further comment:

BBC News, Israel blasts new Shalit cartoon released by Hamas, 25 Apr 2010 "Noam Shalit called the film "psychological warfare" and urged Hamas to reach a deal with Israel in order to ease an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has made life hard for Gaza's people.

""Hamas leaders would do better if instead of producing films and performances, they would worry about the real interests of the Palestinian prisoners and the ordinary citizens of Gaza who have been held hostage by their leaders for a long time," he said in a statement."

David Harris, xinhuanet.com, Hamas uses new technique in psychological war with Israel, 26 Apr 2010 "A superbly-made futuristic animated cartoon broadcast by the Islamist Hamas movement on Sunday is creating waves in Israel. It is thought to be the first of its kind from the military wing of Hamas that does not depend on the traditional images of brave Hamas warriors fighting against Israel."

Hamas in UK

Martin Bright, The Jewish Chronicle, Britain now centre for Hamas support, 25 Feb 2010 "Britain as a Focus for Hamas's Political Propaganda and Legal Activities in Europe warns that this country's tradition of toleration has allowed supporters of the Palestinian terrorist organisation to develop a sophisticated activist and media operation."

See Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Israel), Britain as a Focus for Hamas’ Political, Propaganda and Legal Activities in Europe, 21 Feb 2010

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh case

PA, Hamas chief 'put himself at risk', 21 Feb 2010 "A Hamas leader assassinated during a visit to Dubai last month exposed himself to attack when he breached security protocol by talking about his trip over the phone and making hotel reservations on the internet, the militant Islamic group has said."