Ahed Tamimi

Harriet Sherwood, Guardian, CiF, Palestinian 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi is the latest child victim of Israel’s occupation

Google Street View in Jerusalem

huffingtonpost.com, Google Street View Comes To Israel "After months of consultations with Israeli security officials, Google has launched its popular Street View service in the country's three largest cities. The new Street View provides images of ordinary life, contested areas and religious sites in the Holy Land."

Also See Ha'aretz, Google Street View catches the beauty and hardships of Jerusalem's Old City

There's quite a lot of detail to be found (in my cursory exploration of this) - and of course many political implications and issues relating to this data being published (and how it is labelled):

 
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'Third Intifada' app

aljazeera.net, Apple removes 'Third Intifada' app, 23 Jun 2011 "Technology giant Apple has removed a pro-Palestinian mobile application from its roster of hosted programmes after Israel complained it incited users to violence.

"The "Third Intifada" application essentially reproduced the content from a website of the same name - 3rdIntifada.com - which posts news and opinion articles about Israeli aggression and the Palestinian cause."

The image on the left is from 3rdintifada.com (who may have received substantial extra publicity from this incident)

Cyber Culture Studies: Palestinian E-Resistance

Ghada Alakhdar, Amazon.com: Cyber Culture Studies: Palestinian E-Resistance: New Scopes for Cultural Political Intervention (9783639357905): Books "The Internet has evidently helped unearth dictatorships in the Arab-Islamic world by empowering the "silent and passive" masses. Restrictions on information spread and exchange such as borders, distance and time have become insignificant. The book zooms in on Palestinian e-resistance strategies. It reads the Deleuzo-Guattarian "rhizome", theoretical model of mobility and change, to chart out a diversity of dynamic agendas and arguments which develop and diversify online. This strategic mobility works in coherence with the quick economic and demographic changes that take place on the Palestinian territorial map itself. The book, therefore, provides inspiring theoretical tools and analysis for understanding the dynamics of e-resistance exploring how the Palestinian cause is related to diverse aspects of life, inviting a deeper understanding and expanding its chances for getting international support. This book should be useful for professionals in areas of social media and culture, resistance literature, Middle East studies and cyber philosophy, or anyone interested in exploring e-resistance and cultural-political e-empowerment."

I look forward to reading this.

Border protests

Adrian Blomfield, Telegraph, Israel attacks Palestinian border protests, 15 May 2011 "Inspired by popular revolts elsewhere in the Middle East, activists are believed to have orchestrated the march on Israel's borders in secret by using social networking sites like Facebook."

Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan, Xinhua, Anti-Israel Arab protests turning point in Mideast conflict: analysts, 16 May 2011 "Palestinian politicians and analysts said on Sunday that the Palestinian and Arab protests, rallies and demonstrations against Israel, which marked 63 years for the Nakba Day, or Catastrophe, might be a turning point in the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict."

Nicholas Blanford, Maroun er Ras, Time, A Third Intifadeh? Deadly Nakba Protests Spark Fears of Israel-Lebanon Border Escalation, 15 May 2011

"South Lebanon Sunday witnessed its deadliest day since the month-long Israel-Hizballah 2006 war when 10 Palestinian demonstrators were reported shot dead and another 112 wounded as Israeli troops opened fire on protests along the border fence."

Edward Yeranian, VOA, Syrian Crackdown in Border Town Enters Second Day, 15 May 2011

Facebook: 'Third Palestinian Intifada'

Contrasting views on the removal from Facebook of 'Third Palestinian Intifada':

arabcrunch.com, Facebook Bowes to “Israel” Deletes “Third Palestinian Intifada” Page Unjustly, 30 Mar 2011 "The truth is that we have been following the page and did not find any calls to violence and that the page admin affirmed several times that his page does not call for violence and said that if Facebook removes the page all Muslims will boycott Facebook forever, as the “true face of Facebook will uncover.”"

Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post, Facebook removes '3rd intifada' page, 30 Mar 2011 "Facebook removed a page on its social networking site Tuesday that called for a third intifada against Israel, after the site’s monitors said administrators of the page were found to be participating in calls for violence."

Facebook: 'Third Palestinian Intifada'

I've been picking up some interesting coverage on the Facebook page(s) 'Third Palestinian Intifada'. For example, see Ha'aretz, ADL slams Facebook for refusing to remove 'third Intifada' fan page, 26 Mar 2011 "The fan page, which has over 308,395 fans, is dedicated to encourage the outbreak a third Intifada in Israel, and warns that if Facebook removes the page "all Muslims will boycott Facebook forever."

Also view Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post, Facebook 'monitoring' page calling for 3rd intifada, 28 Mar 2011 "The Facebook social networking site is monitoring an Arabic-language page which calls for a “third intifada” against Israel, but the site’s bosses have concluded that it has not gone beyond the bounds of acceptable speech, and have decided not to remove it, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.

"The Facebook page, called “Third Palestinian intifada,” has attracted over 330,000 fans since going online, and has issued a call for a mass march into Israel from neighboring countries."

There's also (predictable) Facebook campaigning against 'Third Palestinian Intifada'.

The Palestine Papers

Huffington Post, Palestine Papers: Al Jazeera, Guardian Release Documents On Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 23 Jan 2011 "Today, Al Jazeera and the Guardian released the first of more than 1,600 documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

See The Guardian, The Palestine Papers "A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The papers provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process, which is now regarded as all but dead."

'Taking the Middle East conflict online'

Netta Ahituv, European Journalism Centre, Taking the Middle East conflict online, 29 Nov 2010 discusses blogging in Israeli and Palestinian contexts - and dialogue between diverse parties online.

"Despite the substantial presence of pro-Israeli organisations and activity on the web, there is a general feeling among the Israeli public that the Palestinian side is ‘winning’ this virtual battle. There are many more anti-Israeli blogs and websites than pro-Israeli ones."

article refers to middleastpost.com

Musical break: 'Rap and Metal on Planet Islam'

Very interesting article:

James M. Dorsey from the December 2010 issue of Reason Magazine/GLG News, Rap and Metal on Planet Islam, 23 Nov 2010: "With the growing realization that the region’s authoritarian regimes and controlled economies are unable to offer opportunity to their predominantly young populations, metal and rap have been elevated as channels to express discontent. Their role is enhanced by the Internet and other technologies for mass distribution that make government control difficult and allow musicians and their fans to carve out autonomous spaces that shield them from intrusion by censors and other cultural scolds."

Original article here.

Worth checking out some of the music mentioned.



also on FB صوت لا يقهر

'Islamic Banking Hits the Web'

Internet Evolution - Marsha Weinstein - Islamic Banking Hits the Web, 16 Nov 2010 "A jaunt to now-Muslim-majority Bethlehem, in the Palestinian Authority, reveals a thriving city: renovated, bustling, affluent. When I remark on the profusion of late-model European SUVs, my Palestinian host shrugs: “Like in the West -- they live beyond their means.”"

'Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam'

The Associated Press: Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam, 12 Nov 2010: "A mysterious blogger who set off an uproar in the Arab world by claiming he was God and hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad is now behind bars — caught in a sting that used Facebook to track him down."

'Facebook is Not Where You Want to Hide'

Ahmad F Al-Shagra, The Next Web, Facebook is Not Where You Want to Hide, 15 Nov 2010 "It appears this week has been a busy one for both Islamic regulators and Facebook alike that with the arrest of an outspoken atheirst Palestinian blogger, temporary shutdown of Facebook in Saudi, and the removal of anti-Islam Facebook pages."

"Learn Arabic with Maha"

alarabiya.net, Palestinian-Italian launches online Arabic lessons, 8 Sep 2010 "Maha Yacoub, a Palestinian-Italian living in the city of Livorno on the western coast, starting her teaching career with private tutoring then moved to the video sharing website YouTube where she launched the channel "Learn Arabic with Maha.""

See Maha's blog Learn Arabic with Maha, and here's her YouTube channel

Hacking off-target

dp-news.com, Islamic hackers invade website of Belvoir Castle in protest over Israeli foreign policy. 1 Sep 2010 "A spokesman for the castle said they had no idea why the early 19th century property had been targeted in such a manner.

"The spokesman said: "We don't know why they have done this to us.

""It happened on Friday afternoon and we've had our IT chap working to try to fix it.

""We've nothing to do with Israel or the Middle East, I just help to organise the teddy bears' picnic.""

Faces of the Moon

gawker.com, Faces of the Moon: "A Palestinian woman reads from the Qu'ran in Nablus, the West Bank, on Sunday. Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, began a little more than a week ago and ends in early September. Pic via AP" Great photo! Click on the link to take a look.

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.

StartPalestine

arabcrunch.com, Breaking: Demo Palestine Joins ArabCrunchStart Family, Now Called #ArabCrunchStart #Palestine, 28 Apr 2010 "ArabCrunchStartPalestine will work in 2 tracks: startuping and technology advancement, and will host a series of events featuring top notch local and global speakers, startups and highly skilled engineers.

"ArabCrunchStartPalestine will also work closely with the Palestinians startup and tech community and help them in any way possible."

See StartPalestine for more information on this.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Marc Lynch, foreignpolicy.com, The Qaradawi Index, 21 Jan 2010 "Yusuf al-Qaradawi is in the news these days, denounced on a daily basis on Saudi, Palestinian and Egyptian op-ed pages, forums and TV over his stances on Gaza, on Hamas and Abu Mazen, on Yemen, and more. Following those controversies is an excellent window into what divides and arouses passion in Arab politics today. Hate him or love him, the man has a keen sense of Arab opinion -- whether he's following or leading it -- and has a proven track record of driving the debate. The fury of his adversaries on the other side of the so-called "new Arab cold war" is a pretty direct function of the fact that his opinions, aired on al-Jazeera and spread through multiple online and real-world networks, matter."

'Palestine Street' on al-Jazeera

Tip: Sabbah Report. The programme escaped my attention first time around, so this is a useful pointer.