2.0 - Development of the Internet in Palestine

3.0 - Key issues for Palestinian institutions arising from the Web as a medium

• Appendix One: Complete list of Palestinian websites of individuals and organisations based in the Gaza Strip and West Bank including East Jerusalem (link to external source)
  
  
• Appendix Two: Key institutions in the Palestinian IT community
  
  
• Appendix Three: Excerpts from the speech of Noam Chomsky at Birzeit University on 7 June 1997, relating to information, power and solidarity.
  
  
• Appendix Four: Reasons why Palestinian websites turn out less than perfect. Recommendations concerning staff for NGOs wishing to construct a website

Footnotes

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1.0 - Controls on Palestinian use of the Internet

1.1 - Access to telecommunications services

Due to the conflict between Israel and the Arab World, international telephone lines between Palestine and the Arab World were unavailable for around 23 years, making networking particularly difficult for the Palestinians.

Restrictions on Palestinians meant that the Israeli government telecommunications company, Bezeq, was never quick to service Palestinian users in the Occupied Territories. Many Palestinians waited for 7 years on average for a phone to be installed in their home or office, and it is not uncommon to find people who were still waiting after more than 20 years.

Psychological barriers to exploiting IT developments also existed, as it was known that telephone lines also served as sources of intelligence information for the military authorities. One story - apocryphal perhaps but certainly illustrative - tells how Israeli soldiers were hunting for a Palestinian activist for 3 days at his home. When they found him, they asked "Where have you been?" He looked puzzled. "I've been staying up north with my brother for three days," he replied and then smiled, "Look! I have been asking for a telephone for 8 years and you wouldn't give it to me. If you give me one, you will always know where I am." The telephone arrived in under a fortnight.

1.2 - Legal restrictions on Palestinian access

Israeli Military Order 1279 of June 1989 directly stated that it was an offense for Palestinians to use telephone lines for sending "faxes, electronic mail or any other electronic transmissions"¹. In the middle of the Intifada, this came at a time when contact with the outside world was critical.

In the Oslo 2² agreement in 1995, this legal restriction was lifted, by Annex III, Article 36, section D.2 which stated, "The Palestinian side shall be permitted to import and use any and all kinds of telephones, fax machines, answering machines, modems and data terminals..."

Access for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to leased lines - the dedicated 24-hour-a-day connections through the telephone network to the Internet that are so necessary for institutional access - was forbidden "for security reasons" prior to the Oslo accords. After the Oslo accords their status was changed to "subject to negotiations", apart from to a select few Palestinian ministries. Jerusalem Palestinians, however, were previously granted access to leased lines by Israel and Palnet, a commercial Palestinian Internet service provider (ISP) pioneered a series of microwave links for larger institutions that solved this problem by bouncing signals to and from the West Bank. This too, was "subject to the approval of the proper Israeli authorities", according to Annex III, Article 36, section B.3b of Oslo 2.

With a 128 K leased line procured from the Israeli ISP Netvision to a location in the Sami Ramis neighborhood of Jerusalem, Palnet has created a wireless network using microwave transmitters, bouncing the two-way signal into the Palestinian autonomous area of Ramallah. From Ramallah, the signal has been similarly bounced to Birzeit University, providing us with a leased line. A number of Palestinian ministries in Al-Ram neighborhood, just outside what the Israelis consider to be Jerusalem, have similarly benefited.³

1.3 - Design of the telecommunications infrastructure

The telecommunications infrastructure in the occupied territories was designed so that the nodes were outside areas that might possibly be under Palestinian control in any future peace deal. All calls switched through Israeli exchanges. To phone Gaza City from Khan Yunis, for example, the call switches through an exchange in Askalan. Calls in the central West Bank switch through Jerusalem, and calls in the northern West Bank switch through Natania, apart from Jenin which switches through Afula. Connections to the international telecommunications network were similarly located, in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva.⁴

In the wake of the Oslo accords, the status of telephone networks in Palestine is undergoing significant changes. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been handed over control of the telephone networks in the autonomous PA areas. Area A contains 95 percent of the Palestinian population and represents around 3 percent of the land area of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. These Area A areas, and also the Area B areas only under Palestinian Authority administrative control, are geographically fragmented, divided by the much larger Area C under full Israeli control. The Palestinian telephone networks therefore remain an integrated part of the Israeli telephone network. Establishing an independent telephone network with long distance and international access is not a trivial task for the PA to achieve, and one that faces numerous obstacles and complications.

Some are simply political. Annex III, Article 36, section B.1 of the Oslo 2 agreement, for example, states that, "the Palestinian side has the right to establish satellite networks for various services, excluding international services." An independent "international gateway" for the Palestinians remains pending, presumably for the final status talks.

1.4 - Possible future restrictions on content

At the time of the end-September 1996 clashes after the tunnel opening in Jerusalem, Birzeit offered daily-updated reports on a special website⁵ as Ramallah was besieged by Israeli tanks and a limited shooting war broke out between Israeli and Palestinian forces⁶ . Links were also provided to a webpage at Baraka, the Palestinian NGO network, where relevant NGO press releases and reports had been placed online⁷. This experience revolutionised our view of the Web's worth, and has given birth to several project plans, most notably the News Unit module of the Palestine Archive project⁸. It obviously also revolutionised Israel's view of the power of the Palestinian Internet community, after Birzeit's site made local text and photograph reports available to the world demonstrating a clear shoot-to-kill policy against Palestinian demonstrators, showing damage and ammunition used after helicopters strafed civilian homes, and showing the tanks on the hills around Palestinian towns. The Israeli Internet (and therefore by default the Palestinian Internet) experienced "technical problems" during part of this period, making websites in the whole country unavailable for a few days, during the height of the (propaganda) war, leading many activists here to suspect that some Israeli government interference had taken place.

An international consultant who visited the Israeli Internet service provider (ISP) Netvision in the period immediately after the clashes reported how Netvision staff told him about a visit from an official in the Israeli government. The official posed two questions. Firstly, should Palestinians be allowed to Web publish via Israeli ISPs? Secondly, should Palestinians be allowed to have websites at all? Although nothing has yet resulted from either question, many in the Palestinian IT community felt that the fact they were asked at all was disturbing.

Possible restrictions on content also may be attempted by the Palestinian Authority (PA), although it is important to stress that none exist at present or have been attempted. However, Palestinian print, radio and television media are censored, mostly through self-censorship after intimidation. Journalists and editors have been detained since the PA took control of the autonomous areas and publications have been confiscated or had their distribution otherwise interfered with on occasion.

1.5 - Difficulties in censorship

The problem that both the PA and Israeli government face is that the Internet cannot be realistically censored. In any area where the authorities have control of the telephone network, access to the Web can also be controlled through proxy servers⁹, as in the case of Singapore. Prevention of Web publishing is far more difficult. Access to mirror and FTP servers outside the country are enough to get round controls. Censorship would be additionally difficult for the PA as it is clear that Israel will retain control of the key national and international nodes for years to come. As long as this happens, Web publishers would be able to bypass the PA telecommunications network and upload material using the Israeli system.

When any phone line is sufficient to establish a connection to the Internet via a service provider, the task of blocking must be achieved by preventing access to the service provider itself. With around 40 or so dial-up numbers for the 4 main Palestinian ISPs, this would be a simple task but a Web publisher could theoretically switch to a service provider in a neighboring country, and it is unlikely that any government could compile the mammoth list of telephone numbers necessary to block access to every service provider in the world. Detecting Internet traffic is also rife with difficulties. Separating a modem signal from a fax signal on a line is no easy monitoring task, leaving only the option that Israel used during the Intifada - ban both.

It is important for both parties to recognise that censorship of selected information for political or social reasons is prohibited by international law. The attempt by the US Government to introduce the Communications Decency Act, initially widely justified by populist talk of the fight against child pornography, was overturned at the US Supreme Court level because its scope was too broad and would have also potentially have interfered with the right to freedom of speech.

Dramatic efforts to repress a technology that is by its nature decentralised will fail. Web publishers will find new ways to circumvent mechanisms of repression. With one laptop computer, a mobile phone and a US-based webserver, a person could run an institutional e-mail system and website from a desert if needed.

2.0 - Development of the Internet in Palestine

2.1 - E-mail

In the wake of the various peace talks, as the Palestinians have found themselves with international phone access, the first significant development in the use of the Internet was an increase in the use of electronic mail.

This would not be news in most other countries but here the effects have been dramatic. Many academics and researchers, for years denied travel permission to attend conferences abroad, have found academic freedom in cyberspace. E-mail distribution lists are utilised by several Palestinian NGOs, mostly human rights-oriented, notably Al-Haq; Birzeit University's Human Rights Action Project; the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center; LAW, the Palestinian Society for the protection of Human Rights and the Environment; and the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners. All except JMCC, which concentrates on daily and weekly news briefings, send out Amnesty International-style alerts around the world when human rights violations take place.

Currently, about 100 NGOs, not including educational institutions, have some kind of e-mail access, out of an estimated 1,200 local Palestinian NGOs¹⁰. Most who do have are not using it to its full potential. It is expected that there will be an increasingly large number of NGOs using this distribution system in the future.

2.2 - World Wide Web

Only 2 years ago, the number of websites of Palestinians organisations based in the Gaza Strip and West Bank including East Jerusalem could be counted on one hand.

Today, the number of local websites is approaching 100. Birzeit University tracks this development via its Complete Guide To Palestine's Websites, found at http://www.birzeit.edu/links/. This resource is a reviewed list of all known websites that fall into the above category, and acts as the Palestine WWW Virtual Library section of the Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library maintained at the Australian National University. The site has been recommended by the New York Times and the online version of the London Daily Telegraph. Development of a Palestinian Web-based information resource has begun.

Birzeit began investigating the World Wide Web in early 1995. During summer 1995, Elizabeth Boury, webmaster at the University of Texas in Austin, visited Birzeit and introduced us to the concepts of Web publishing. Work began in the autumn on the construction of an initial information resource about the university, which was not launched until the middle of 1996 when the quality and quantity of information had reached acceptable levels. Another policy decision was made to offer information about the wider Palestinian community, which has taken the university into the arenas of news, tourism and culture. Today, looking back at the first year of the Birzeit website's operation, we can see this was successful. The Birzeit website was launched on 6 June 1996, with over 47,000 visits registered by the end of the first year of operation. This figure is calculated from a monthly measurement of unique accesses. During this same period, almost 200,000 HTML document requests were made, out of a total of over half a million requests for documents and images¹¹.

2.3 - Overview of the NGO sector

The World Bank has estimated that over 1,200 Palestinian NGOs and 200 international NGOs are active; of these, more than 400 belong to two well-established Palestinian NGO membership associations, the General Union of Charitable Societies (almost 400 members) and the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGON, approximately 80 members), while several hundred are claimed as members by three new unions, the Board Union of Palestinian NGOs (BPUNGO), the General Palestinian Union of NGOs (GPUNGO) and the Palestinian National Institute for NGOs (PNIN).

The Palestinian NGO sector has played a crucial role in the development of Palestinian civic society and the upkeep of the community. Throughout 30 years of Israeli occupation, NGOs took on the roles and responsibilities of development in all areas of Palestinian life which the newly established Palestinian Authority has now assumed. A large percentage of NGOs have collected tremendous amounts of information, conducted research, developed an understanding of the society and struggled for democratic and human rights. The information, experiences and knowledge accumulated over this crucial period of time are vast and extremely pertinent to the present process of policy creation which will direct all sectors of Palestinian society and international NGOs. However, one of the major flaws of the current NGO system is the dissemination and sharing of information; it is scattered, generally unorganized, unpublished, much of it is duplicated and often buried deeply within the filing systems of NGOs.

One of the most effective methods of making this vast wealth of information available to the Palestinian public and policy makers is through the use of information technology (IT). IT will allow the NGO community to share their information with the Palestinian public while at the same time strengthening and increasing their effectiveness and efficiency in directing change within society. Establishing NGO networks within and outside the community using the World Wide Web and other Internet tools will allow them to coordinate effectively, exchange information and consolidate their efforts in order to offer effective strategies to current problems.¹²

Several issues arise when considering how Palestinian institutions and NGOs in particular should approach the issue of the Internet and how they are actually implementing their sites. To understand the implications of these issues, it is necessary to first consider the Web as a whole. The following summaries, where appropriate, offer a brief introduction to the worldwide situation, how this relates to Palestine, and Birzeit's experience and recommendations to NGOs.

3.0 - Key issues for Palestinian institutions arising from the Web as a medium

3.1 - Introduction

As the Web is a relatively cheap and easy medium to publish on, a high percentage of available material is of poor quality. Individuals can have the same Web presence as a big organisation. In even many major - and obviously expensive - corporate websites launched by companies and organisations in the North, we can see poor design and difficulties in navigation around websites, or a lack of information useful to their customers or supporters. These websites essentially fail in their objective - to attract people to the organisation and its product or message. The basic problem is that many people have either not understood the medium or have simply not taken it seriously enough.

This is not a wise approach. The Web has an estimated 70+ million users, contrasting with 8.5 million users in 1995 and an estimated 130-200 million by 1999. Worldwide, the number of websites has quadrupled in the last six months. If we focus on one US town, San Diego, we see that 48 percent of homes have computers (almost half-a-million homes) and 40 percent of these homes have Internet access (200,000). 16% of the worldís population will have an e-mail address by the year 2000.¹³

The Internet is important and will become increasingly important. One commentator recently suggested that those institutions that avoid it will suffer the same fate as those creatures that failed to evolve, grow legs, and crawl out of the sea. As information is increasingly available in an electronic format, and networking and information sharing between institutions reaches new levels, the difference between organisations that have and have not appropriated IT will be clear. The power of word processing, when it became publicly available, revolutionized the work of organisations previously dependent on typewriters, secretaries and editors. Desktop publishing software eliminated the need for a whole chain of persons previously necessary to produce a professional publication. Databases made access to information and overviews of organisational information systems something simple and quick, where before it was time consuming and expensive. The Internet as a whole, including electronic mail and the Web, are now working the same magic. To not avail ourselves of the medium is to lose many benefits that speak directly to the Palestinian experience.

3.2 - Networking benefits

A sense of isolation from the international community is still felt in Palestine, brought about by physical and psychological borders (checkpoints, travel restrictions, relatively little contact with international visitors), a dominant media focus on Israel, and local NGO operational budgets far smaller than that of their Northern counterparts preventing them from taking advantage of the mass application of non-Internet communications technology such as mass distribution of faxed briefings or the production and wide dissemination of educational videos. The main target audience of Palestinian NGOs has traditionally been the international community, and both distance and the lack of technological skills and access to technology means increased cost if NGOs want to reach this audience. This target audience is very reachable through the Web and, as a bonus, new potentials for local networking also now exist.

At Birzeit, we have noticed that the website, with its various sections encompassing general university information, news, tourism and culture, has attracted a significant number of new friends to the university. The Arab-American/European and international solidarity communities in the US are two groups that have been particularly noticeable in the e-mail feedback from the university website. In addition, many who have only previously encountered Palestinians through foreign news agencies have become regular visitors to the website. Here is a brief sample of e-mail received:

- - - - - I was scanning Palestinian web sites and found your page and was delighted. I am Palestinian living in Birmingham, Alabama. I am writing a novel about my experiences as an American Palestinian and am hungry for information about Ramallah. I was born there and lived there til I was five and have not been back since. I need descriptive material as well as political material on every phase of Ramallah life under Israeli occupation. I am willing to buy books, videos, etc. Can you help me get some materials. Please write. Thank you for your contributions to making the Palestinian situation more understandable to Internet browsers. You are providing a valuable service.
- - - - -
I would like to be on your e-mail listing to receive important notices on those days when I can not visit your excellent web site. I am particularly interested in being able to write to the US and Israeli governments on urgent situations, which I know are common in Palestine. I appreciate your amazing fortitude and successes thus far, and the future is still uncertain.
- - - -
I'm an American Jewish software engineer living and working for the moment in Israel. I've spent the last hour reading your online diary via Birzeit's Web Page. I think it's an incredibly valuable contribution to the record of events in the region, and very very helpful for anyone trying to understand what exactly is happening here. I hope you'll continue to keep the diary updated. Salaam and Shalom.
- - - - -
I am a Singaporean who has seen your excellent website - very objective and interesting. I will be setting off for Syria in a weeks' time for a holiday. After 1 week there, I will be in Jordan for 2 days and then to Israel. I hope to visit West Bank towns like Jericho and Hebron. Any dangers associated with these towns, and any inconveniences, such as Israeli blockades ? Are there any tourist attractions in Ramallah ? - - - -

Birzeit has two main e-mail mailing lists, the Birzeit University Press Release mailing list, available on request from pr@admin.birzeit.edu and the Birzeit, Palestine and the Web mailing list, available on request from webmaster@birzeit.edu. The first list sends out news items, human rights urgent action mailings and the occasional significant briefing from other organisations to individuals, universities, media, student unions, Palestine-related e-mail discussion lists, Israeli embassies and US political representatives. The second list sends out details when new material has been added to the Birzeit website, when new Palestinian websites are launched, and occasional commentaries about the Internet community in Palestine. The second list has been used successfully for fundraising.

Birzeit staff and departments are reachable directly by e-mail. No one person is responsible for delivering the entire university mail to the right person as is the case in many NGOs. For example, at Birzeit, departments such as the Public Relations Office (pr@admin.birzeit.edu), the Law Centre (law@birzeit.edu) and the Human Rights Action Project (hrap@admin.birzeit.edu) can all be reached independently and directly by e-mail. Within these departments, individuals with different responsibilities can also be accessed directly. For example, in Public Relations Office, visiting groups can contact the Visiting Groups Coordinator (adana@admin.birzeit.edu), Arabic Publications (labdhadi@admin.birzeit.edu), English Publications (nparry@admin.birzeit.edu), the University Photographer (photoman@admin.birzeit.edu) or the Webmaster (webmaster@birzeit.edu). This frees staff time from the task of sorting e-mail manually and provides quick and direct access to staff. The addresses and responsibilities of staff can be advertised in the contact section of a departmental homepage.

• It is recommended that NGOs, as well as establishing a website, also establish an accompanying e-mail list to let people know when new material has been added to your website, to get quick responses to action alerts, to facilitate discussions about policy and the general work of the NGO.
• It is recommended that NGOs with more than 5 staff look into the possibility of automating their e-mail system via a server with automatic polling (mail collection) software rather than rely on a single institutional e-mail address. This is relatively inexpensive to implement.

3.3 - Online databases

Databases of NGO information, published in both Arabic and English, will offer a quick reference for anyone interested in the workings of Palestinian society. Most importantly, the availability of published information from NGOs will offer a quick, organized and specific resource for those involved in setting the policies which will direct the future of the Palestinian community in the years to come.

In the process of development of the emerging Palestinian state, the opportunity for policy research NGOs to offer online databases for use by Palestinian legislators and researchers has become critical. This will facilitate intra-Palestinian networking between NGOs. Baraka, the NGO service provider, has successfully been awarded a grant to address this important area¹⁴. Currently, even considering NGOs who have moved into Web publishing, only a few have even begun to consider this area of development. Resources can shared with other NGOs worldwide, in exchange for access to Northern NGO data banks, whose information will greatly benefit their Palestinian counterparts.

Birzeit University, with the largest library in the Gaza Strip or West Bank, has begun offering its library catalogue online to the world. Preliminary faculty and student contact databases are also accessible through the university homepage. The Law Center is also working on a significant database project. With the signing of the Palestinian-Israeli accords, Palestinian legislative and judicial activity has resumed on an entirely new basis. For the first time, there is legislation and jurisprudence that is specifically Palestinian. Following and documenting this legal activity is a necessary and irreplaceable task.

In conjunction with the Palestinian Legislative Compilation Project, Birzeit's Law Center is developing an ambitious computerised legal database which will contain all the laws in force in Palestine, as well as new legislation as it comes into force, and commentary on Palestinian legal activities, with the aim of offering retrieval facilities to local and foreign researchers.

The Palestinian Legal Information System (PLIS) project will include databases of full-text in Arabic, images of original sources, referential or bibliographic records with cross-references or relations between laws, advanced search and retrieval methods including hypertext and Boolean logic terms. The material will include all legislation, treaties and - at a later date - jurisprudence, in addition to information about useful references and services to legislators, jurists and other users of the system. The Birzeit Law Centre has been collecting information about legal and judicial information systems from other countries in the region (Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia) and elsewhere (France, U.K., Australia).

Work has already begun on two legal databases, which will be available through the Internet shortly:

1. Qaidam: A referential (bibliographic) data base of laws in force in the Palestinian Territories, including legislation enacted in all the periods of the twentieth century: Ottoman, Jordanian in the West Bank, Egyptian in the Gaza Strip, Israeli in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Authority laws. Microsoft Access Arabic/English database software is being used.
2. Qanoun: A working model of a full text data base (in English only as yet). It uses Intranet (WAIS) search and indexing engines under Windows NT 4.0.

• It is recommended that NGOs prioritise the creation/availability of online databases pertaining to their work.

3.4 - International information dissemination benefits

By the year 2000, 75 percent of US households are expected to have Internet access and all of the governmental and educational sector in the US will have online access. Currently, the vast majority of Web users are in North America and Europe and information flow is almost entirely from the North to the South¹⁵.

There is more information about Palestine on the Web that comes from outside the country than from inside Palestine. There is more American and Israeli material available about Palestine than there is Palestinian material available about Palestine. Even the prevalence of the words "Palestinian" and "Israeli" on the Web says a lot about the Palestinian Internet presence. On the Hotbot search engine¹⁶, http://www.hotbot.com/, the results were, "Palestinian", 19857, and "Israeli", 53973, showing three times as many mentions of "Israeli" than "Palestinian" in Hotbot's indexed documents.¹⁷ This fact evokes Edward Said's comments about the Western media rarely giving the Palestinians the "permission to narrate"¹⁸. As anyone can publish on the Web, the issue in this case becomes whether Palestinians will take the opportunity to narrate themselves.

Noam Chomsky, speaking at Birzeit on 7 June 1997, commented on the failure of Palestinians to encourage an international solidarity movement in the United States similar to the Anti-Apartheid movement¹⁹. An important key to ending the occupation, he said, was reaching American public opinion. Previous lack of effort or misdirected efforts to reach Americans with information were the reason for this failure to appropriate the key, Chomsky concluded. The Web, owing to its user demography and current place in public focus, will prove to be an important tool in this respect.

Palestinian NGOs are fortunate in that the majority of Internet users are also their target audience in the international arena of this information war. In addition, the members of the target group tend to be both well-educated and possessing access to financial resources. All except 6 percent of Internet users fall into the category of academic, student, administrator, business person or other professional.

Distribution of publications and other information through the Internet is far cheaper and further reaching when compared with print publications, with their associated printing and mail/postal costs. The production cost of a Web-based publication aimed at 10 people is no different for a publication aimed at 10 million people.

Printing companies in Palestine are relatively undeveloped compared to their Northern counterparts and printing can be a risky business with disastrous results. Birzeit's English newsletter only now exists in an online format, found at http://www.birzeit.edu/bzunews/, also distributed via the Birzeit University Press Release mailing list.

It is not foolish to give information away for free. The piracy question sheds some light on this mentality. Companies that complain that cheap copies of their product being pirated, solely on the grounds that the person who buys the $20 watch will not buy the $10,000 watch. It is unlikely that the person would ever buy a $10,000 watch, so Cartier or Rolex are losing none of their business. The same mentality is applied to putting information on the Web. Many NGOs (e.g. PASSIA²⁰ , http://www.amin.org/passia/) prefer not to put full publications on the Web, choosing instead to offer abstracts, as they feel that people will not then purchase them. The result is a website that offers no incentive to the information seeker to return. Web users are used to free information and will only pay in exceptional circumstances. Trying to make users pay for information will mean that a significant amount of publicity for your organisation, and possible funding and networking benefits will be lost.

What happens to your publications income if you do put the full text of your publications online? Based on Birzeit's experience we believe that you will either notice:

1. at best - an increase in people wanting to buy them, or;
2. at worst - nothing will change in terms of sales.

But they will be read more and by a wider audience than traditional NGO distribution channels. This has positive implications for the public profile of the NGO and for activities that depend on this profile, such as fundraising and networking.

Birzeit has made money by investing both funds and staff to fill the website with information. The efforts of the 9 staff and students during the making of the On the ground in Ramallah website about the September 1996 clashes, coupled with a single page appeal²¹ on the website for equipment so that we could 'do it better next time', resulted in funds of over $15,000 coming into Birzeit's Public Relations Office within 6 months. When procurement of the equipment is completed, and the next time we find ourselves documenting clashes that involve our students we will be doing so not just with still cameras, and pens and notebooks. We will be on hand with video cameras, digital cameras, a variety of scanners, laptop computers and modems, to send live reports from the scene and avoid some of the problems faced last time²². Many people want information about Palestine and enough of them are prepared to invest in the source of the information to make it worthwhile.

It is crucial to regularly offer updated information via your websites and mailing lists. When events of national importance take place, it is worth briefly suspending scheduled work, even if only to add a brief report on your website. This encourages visitors to return time and time again, as your reputation as a place to go when something is happening increases. This is definitely not a fixation with numbers of visitors to your website but rather a concern with having a relationship with the people who support your work. A base of regular visitors can be called on for networking assistance, campaigning action and, of course, funds. One correspondent, who was going to attend a Middle East-related symposium the following week after the On the ground in Ramallah appeal was added to the website and distributed through the Internet by e-mail, used the appeal information to do some fundraising for us:

- - - - - I have just now seen your list of needed equipment at the web site (with the tentative prices), and will check back later for the final version which I will print out and then copy for distribution to all interested delegates. Also, I will ask a friend who is involved in organizing the Symposium to let us have a computer there so that everyone can experience "on the ground in ramallah" personally. I hope that the response will be as enthusiastic as I expect!
- - - - -

- - - - -
Congratulations to you and your students for the excellent job you did in reporting. I am an American journalist and would like to help in some manner. I don't have a lot of money but if I were to buy a digital camera, how could I get it to you?
- - - - -

- - - - -
I am grateful that you set up the Birzeit webpages, because I have been finding information to plan my very brief pilgrimage to the Holy Land (6 days in October), including the [Ö ] Ramallah [Online Travel] Guide, your response to my query about independently traveling to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the "PACE" organization and the United Travel Company in Jerusalem, which put me in touch with a Roman Catholic liturigal group from Idaho that I will accompany. If I had not surfed your webpages I would have either used the tour services that I hit with "Israel tourism" searches or else just showed up in Jerusalem and then made all of my arrangements there. I really did not want to do the latter because there is so much to see in a short time and this way the liturgical group will plan all of the logisitics.

Although I am fascinated by the events going on in your region, I don't have any strong convictions about the politics of it (other than since my government insists on sending resources overseas, I wish it would focus on our neighbors in Latin America instead of focusing so much a half a world away). I will send you a check because your web pages have provided a valuable free service. Consider it a thank-you "gift", hopefully tax deductible if you send me back the info about that.
- - - - -

• It is recommended that NGOs adopt policies, where possible, of giving information away, and look instead at creative and alternative Internet information projects as a fundraising tool.
• It is recommended that NGOs invest staff time and money into the mechanisms of information dissemination, as this has been an area of particular neglect in the past. This includes the hiring of staff with Web publishing and desktop publishing skills, and the prioritising of computer literacy amongst existing staff.

3.5 - The role of online business and commerce and its significance to NGOs

Business reasons have proved to be a significant motivation for establishing an online presence in the US. In San Diego, 35 percent of businesses have Internet access. Worldwide, in 1996, online Web purchases exceeded $500 million, estimated to reach $4 billion in 1999. Nearly all US businesses are expected to be on the Web by the year 2000.

In June 1997, Dr. Jon Anderson, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and editor of the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, the journal of review of the Middle East Studies Association of North America gave a lecture at Birzeit University about the Internet in the Arab World.²³

"The Internet has penetrated the Middle East in a commercial guise," Anderson stated, citing the examples of commercial websites such as Arab.Net and Arabia Online, which are characterised by a highly professional design and motivated by the interests of trading organisations and their desire to reach an international market. In Jordan, Anderson noted, 500 new jobs have been created in the Internet sector over the last 2 years. He emphasised the importance of an independent phone company, something unique to Jordan in the Arab World, but pointed out that the Internet is still expensive there, due to a lack of competition.

These factors are not true in Palestine - Palestinian businesses have still not exploited the Internet as a sales and marketing tool, partly because the Internet boom is only just beginning here and partly because access is not widespread amongst its local consumer base. However, in the coming years the tourism and industrial sectors - both of which rely on international markets - will definitely be represented to a much higher proportion than that we see today. In addition, websites in Palestine are almost exclusively produced from the NGO sector and tend to be both research and politically-oriented.

This is only significant for NGOs on a couple of levels. Firstly, although Internet access is not currently expensive in Palestine,²⁴ a strong Palestinian commercial presence on the Internet will bring connection costs down. Paltel, the Palestinian telecommunications company, is privately owned, which also bodes well for future Internet access costs. Secondly, the tools that facilitate online commerce, such as e-cash and other tools for the secure transfer of funds across the Internet, which can also be used by NGOs, will be easier appropriated if local models and skills already exist in the Palestinian business sector.

• It is recommended that NGO coordinating bodies follow the development of tools used in online commerce. These will become important as their use spreads amongst Web users, for the selling of publications and other services, and as a donation channel.

3.6 - Language

The Georgia Institute of Technology conducted a study into Web usage patterns in 1997. GIT found that the first languages of Web users were distributed as follows²⁵: Arabic - 0.07%, Hebrew - 0.17%, Spanish - 0.9%, German - 1.07%, French - 1.18% and English - 91.84%.

Language is a critical issue on the Internet. If your primary aim is to reach the majority of Internet users, the language of the Internet is decisively English. English language skills in Palestine, even of well-educated NGO personnel are often not up to publication quality. Technical issues such as grammar and spelling are not the only issues. The polemic and emotional style of written Arabic does not translate well into written English.

Birzeit employs English native speakers, both internationals and Diaspora Palestinians, to undertake the production of the university's English language brochures and website. International students have also been used at Birzeit to translate key parts of the website into French and German. Even these publications, despite being written by native speakers, are subject to extensive editing by other native speakers. The process of producing quality publications is by necessity labour intensive and time consuming.

Palestinian English-language websites - the vast majority - are regularly marred with a poor quality English grammar and spelling. Even the official Palestinian Authority (PA) website, available at http://www.pna.net/ is riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes despite having a five-person team working on it.

In Appendix Four, I have offered three main reasons why Palestinian websites turn out less than perfect which are important for NGOs to take on board. The PA site would fall into the category of a "geek site", where control of the website has been put into the hands of technically-skilled staff rather than staff trained in information skills. Compare this with the website and accompanying e-mail list of the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs at http://www.israel.org/ or http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/ which clearly demonstrate a staffing focus on content provision and not the technical side.

To conclude, none of these problems are insurmountable. The PA website, for example, is still relatively new. Staff working on the site are aware of its shortcomings and are working hard to create a good governmental Palestinian information resource. The sheer energy put into many key Palestinian sites - both government and NGO - reassures me in the end that things will work out positively, if Palestinian institutions, including NGOs, confront the problem areas with confidence.

Nigel Parry, Birzeit Webmaster, 18 August 1997

Appendix One: Complete list of Palestinian websites of individuals and organisations based in the Gaza Strip and West Bank including East Jerusalem

Taken from Birzeit University's Complete Guide to Palestine's Websites, found at http://www.birzeit.edu/links/glance.html. This appendix was not included in the on-line version of this document as sites change often. The link above leads to the most up-to-date list of Palestinian websites.

Appendix Two: Key institutions in the Palestinian IT community

The following a represents a list to introduce key public and private institutions and groups involved with IT development in Palestine:

Bailasan, Palestinian Internet Services Company: http://www.bailasan.com/ - is another ISP and Web design company that has appeared recently. It has attempted to offer a news service, although content is poor.

Baraka: http://www.baraka.org/ - Baraka, the Palestinian NGO service provider, launched its website in mid-1996. Limited information is provided about NGOs, although the network rose to the challenge and provided an excellent section of reports from Palestinian NGOs during the clashes that swept the country in late September 1996. Baraka only services around 124 users, 60 of whom are individuals and 64 of whom are NGOs, out of a possible total of 1,200 local Palestinian NGOs. However, Baraka has just received $100,000 from the Ford Foundation to focus on training to bring key policy research NGOs online in the coming year. This will take place in several stages:

1. Approaching policy research NGOs already within the Baraka framework as well as those outside it, explaining the concept of the World Wide Web to NGO management, showing examples of existing websites and communicating the advantages inherent in moving onto the World Wide Web.
2. Offering general awareness workshops and seminars on Information Technology to familiarize and raise the knowledge of the policy research NGOs in this quickly developing yet relatively new field.
3. Identifying policy research NGO staff who are currently involved in the production of information and who are capable of taking over the later task of website maintenance.
4. Setting up information channels between policy research NGO staff and the Baraka Web Team to establish the necessary foundations for website maintenance.
5. Assisting during the difficult initial stages by offering on-site training during the construction of NGO websites, with training tailored to their individual needs and particular information resource.
6. Training policy research NGO staff in the skills of website maintenance, first in general workshops, followed by one-on-one training. ²⁶

Birzeit University: http://www.birzeit.edu/ - Birzeit, owing to its central position in Palestinian society, has become a key Palestinian IT policy center and content provider. Birzeit offers consultancy services to Palestinian institutions on network installation and information systems. Birzeit's website offers extensive information on the wider Palestinian society, including news items, tourist information, material related to the development of the Internet and Internet community in Palestine. Birzeit proposes to establish a national IT training center, an online newspaper and an information archive on all aspects of Palestinian life, culture and society.

Information Technology Special Interest Group (ITSIG): http://www.birzeit.edu/national/itsig/ - In its own words, the non-official body ITSIG aims, "to develop an atmosphere of coordination and cooperation between the various bodies and individuals involved in the development of IT in Palestine; to create an advisory body for IT projects; to influence policy makers in IT related issues and developments; to formulate a view on policy and strategy; to coordinate efforts and activities between international and donor agencies in IT; and to raise the awareness of the Palestinian community in relation to IT." Possible areas of ITSIG contribution include, "development of telecommunications and infrastructure; IT services, e.g. banking, marketing, tele-medicine, industry, public services, etc.; technical IT policies, legal and regulatory frameworks and standards; IT regulations and policies to protect citizen and consumer rights, privacy and accessibility; and human resource development and education." The main purpose of this website seems to be to advertise ITSIG's mailing discussion list.

Palestinian Academic Network (Planet): http://www.planet.edu/ - Planet was the first to provide a graphical PPP dial-up Web connection that was used by many departments at Birzeit University prior to the installation of our leased line. Planet established the new Palestinian ISP and content provider Palestine.On.Line: http://www.p-ol.com/ that offers various searchable business and service directories.

Palnet: http://www.palnet.com/ - Definitely the most dynamic Palestinian ISP, Palnet arrived on the scene as a commercial service provider offering e-mail and a Web connection to individuals and organisations for only $25 a month with unlimited access. PALNET have been involved in educational outreach work including stalls at the Palestine International Festival 1996, offering opportunities for visitors to browse the Web and hopefully will make a reappearance this coming year. A dynamic company with 852 users, up from 470 at the November 1996 count. Palnet has pioneered the installation of a wireless microwave network that services 11 education, governmental and non-governmental institutions in the West Bank, including the provision of a 128K leased line to Birzeit University. Work on a wireless network in Gaza has been obstructed, as no permits have been granted for Palnet to travel there to train its Gazan employees to install the network. Palnet has also established a joint project with K5M, Ramallah's first restaurant-cafe called "Palnet@K5M": http://www.palnet.com/k5m/, establishing the first Palestinian Internet Cafe, located in Ramallah.

United Nations Development Programme (Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People): http://www.papp.undp.org/ - UNDP (PAPP) became interested in the idea of building a Palestinian research and academic network around 1994, sponsoring and training universities in how to provide e-mail to their faculty. The website is a good reference point for those interested in this work and the wider work of the United Nations. Formerly attached to the Internet via a connection to the Hebrew University, UNDP's current connection is via IBM. UNDP supplied Birzeit University's webserver's connection during its first year of operation.

Appendix Three: Excerpts from the speech of Noam Chomsky at Birzeit University on 7 June 1997, relating to information, power and solidarity.

Liberation requires limits on the power of the oppressor, from within, otherwise there will be no liberation. Again, that's true from personal relations to large-scale political and social structures. History shows that quite clearly, direct experience confirms it, often richly, again, I stress of every relationship, from interpersonal relationships, to social-political struggle of a broader type. In the specific case of national liberation, this translates into the need to construct bonds of sympathy and support with people inside the system of power that is holding the gun. That can be done, and personally, some of the most treasured moments of my own life involved participating in relations of just that kind within the US and in many parts of the world.

For the Palestinians what this means is within Israel and the US one of the great failures of the Palestinian leadership is that it has not undertaken these initiatives as it might have, and in fact it has even erected barriers to establishment of such relations, and the cost in suffering and anguish have been great. The lack of roots in a society with internal democracy has very likely been a factor. There are many illustrations of the crucial significance of international solidarity, of links between those who are struggling against oppression and popular forces elsewhere, crucially within the powerful systems that are conducting the oppression themselves.

A case relevant to here is South African white society, which had more than enough force at its command to destroy the ANC, and to maintain the apartheid system, and the Bantustans. Internal opposition within white society and strong international solidarity movements limited those measures and, after enormous suffering, the system was overthrown. We should remember the dramatic collapse of the apartheid system and of course the dismantling of the homelands was recent, and very surprising. No-one could have predicted that a few years ago, but the oppression was reaching a peak a few years ago, and the early 1990s was probably the time of the greatest atrocities, while 10 years ago there was a virtual war against the African population, and the ANC was barely able to survive.

But it changed, and it's an indication of what can happen, with dedicated and courageous struggle. In this case, crucially dependent on very powerful bonds of sympathy and support, from within the oppressive society and the outside world. And there are many other examples. In fact I don't know of a successful liberation struggle that doesn't have this characteristic.

These examples show that injustice will not be overcome without dedicated, courageous struggle by the victims, but that more is needed if concentrations of power are not to prevail. Those concentrations must be restricted and eroded, and that can only come about from within, and indeed that will come from links from sympathy and support for struggles against injustice.

The Palestinian cause could have gained a great deal of popular support. Just to illustrate with a crucial part of the story, for more than 20 years the US government has unilaterally blocked the diplomatic efforts to implement the very broad international consensus in favour of the two-state settlement of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Meanwhile the US population favours that outcome 2 to 1, and that is remarkable because few people had heard any advocacy of this position, meaning they made it up for themselves, and virtually no one was aware of the role of their own government in blocking the path to a peaceful settlement. No significant solidarity movement developed, despite the efforts of many activists within the US. Even the most elementary fact could not break through to public attention and awareness. This is quite different from the cases that I mentioned before, and others like them.

Well, there are many reasons for these painful failures, and all of us have to think about our own roles in those failures, but one reason is the choices made by the PLO leadership. These are matters again that I think Palestinians should consider quite carefully. Edward Said has recently begun to discuss some of the efforts that he had undertaken to convince the leadership to "organise a strategic campaign abroad, to articulate the moral dimensions of the cause, rather than posturing as romantic militants." He uses the example of the anti-apartheid campaign as a model that could have been followed, and that in fact was proposed as the model to be followed, but was not followed. It is an appropriate analogy, now that we see the outcome, one of many.

I was personally involved in some of these efforts for many years and the failure was total, beyond anything I know of, and significant opportunities were lost. I don't think that is forever, I think it can be overcome, but only if the issues are faced squarely, honestly, and without illusion.

Appendix Four: Reasons why Palestinian websites turn out less than perfect.

"Project" or "spare secretary" sites

NGOs often give a website as a project to an unoccupied staff member or a friend who is neither qualified nor experienced to design or maintain a website. The result are websites that say more about the individual that makes them than about the NGO or its work. Excessive use of animated gifs and other tack permeate the site. These we have termed "project" or "spare secretary" sites. They cheapen the work of the organisation and dissuade potential funders or supporters from proceeding further. It is incredible that a publication like a website, that will probably be seen by more people than any print publication an NGO may disseminate, will be treated with such disregard. There are, fortunately, only a handful of websites like these in Palestine.

"Brochure" sites

NGOs widely see the Web only as a basic advertising medium. An existing brochure is simply placed on the Web, in the hope that if someone types in "The Apple Society for Human Rights" to a search engine they will be led to contact information and thus be put in touch with the NGO. This is what we have termed "brochure" sites. Brochure sites change only as often as the phone and fax numbers of the organisation do. A site that adds the occasional publication or that offers abstracts of publications available for purchase can also fall into this category. No current information is ever added, even if a war is going on! These sites therefore offer no window into events in Palestine, no sense of the organisation adapting and reacting to developments, and give the impression that the organisation is dormant and inactive. They also do not take advantage of the most basic functions of the Web - of searchability, archiving, networking, and permanence of information. A high percentage of Palestine's 90 or so websites fall into this category.

"Geek" sites

NGOs that are well funded often put the design of the website in the hands of a technical expert, who knows how to put the material on the Web but has no concept of communications skills or awareness of how to reach the target audience. The result are websites that look visually fine but are riddled with spelling mistakes, do not sell the concepts well, and have no discernible pattern to content delivery. We have termed this a "geek"²⁷ site. On a corporate or organisational level, as an illustration, this can manifest in a 5-person Web team that is made up of 4 technical staff with the remaining person responsible for the information content. This is the exact opposite of what should happen.

Recommendations concerning staff for NGOs wishing to construct a website

The solution to all three of these problems is to give the construction of your website to professionals or to only offer up highly computer literate staff for training. It is also possible to strike a balance, getting a professional to design and construct the site and then have this person train computer literate staff to maintain it. When considering staff responsible for general information provision, there are certain issues that should be taken into account, both when hiring new staff or the training of existing staff:

Hiring

Many people find computers intimidating and all the training in the world will not make them computer literate. It is important therefore that those responsible for the hiring of new staff should seek a high level computer literacy skills for those in charge of information provision. The ability to use a word processor is not enough. Familiarity with desktop publishing, the mass mailing capabilities of electronic mail and at least basic concepts of Web publishing should be a standard requirement these days. The latter is best tested by asking to see existing websites that the interviewee has constructed. The other option is to ensure that a potential information staff member understands the medium very well as a user, and is paired with a technical person who can implement the actual preparation of information for the website. And of course, hiring someone to work as a webmaster is definitely not a waste of money, although I suspect this will be the hardest suggestion for most NGOs to accept!

Existing staff

Training all staff in the use of the Web for research and networking purposes is important. You cannot prepare information for the Web without understanding how the medium works. It is not a print publication, it is not TV and it is not e-mail. Training in Palestine is available. Allow existing staff to use the Web for their work and familiarise them with the work the organisation is doing on the Web. I have encountered the situation where Birzeit staff members have spent half-an-hour hunting down a publication before putting it in an envelope and mailing it to someone when the publication is already instantly available to the enquirer - who has Web access - on the university website. Knowing how to get the information you need from it is a real skill and will prove to be invaluable. Do not attempt to train staff in Web publishing if they have limited computer skills. I have been sent people for training that do not know how to use a mouse on a computer.

Footnotes

1. See p152, Israeli Military Orders in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank 1967-1992, JMCC, 1993.
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2. The official title of the agreement is the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, signed in Washington on 28 September 1995.
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3. See Palestine: Web Surfers Sideslip Technological And Political Problems, by Deborah Horan, InterPress Service, 21 November, 1996, available at http://www.birzeit.edu/web/palnet.html
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4. See Status and Future Telecommunications and Data Networks in Palestine by Marwan Tarazi, Director, Computer Center, Birzeit University, located at http://www.birzeit.edu/web/control.html
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5. See "Comment" in What's New on the Web at BZU?, Vol. 1, Issue 2, at http://www.birzeit.edu/web/wnotw2.html, for more discussion of this phenomena.
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6. See the On the Ground in Ramallah: Reports from a town turned battlefield website, at http://www.birzeit.edu/palnews/war/
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7. See http://www.baraka.org/updates.html
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8. The Palestine Archive project proposal is available at http://www.birzeit.edu/palarc/arcfinal.html
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9. A proxy server is a server to which all requests for webpages are submitted, which then in turn requests the webpages from the server they reside on. Certain Web addresses can therefore be filtered out by this intermediary or "proxy". This can be implemented at a national, institutional or ISP level but not always for reasons of censorship. Birzeit University offers Web access to its users via a proxy server, which allows regularly accessed pages to be cached locally, speeding retrieval time.
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10. Statistic from the World Bank. In addition, 200 international NGOs operate in Palestine.
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11. For a full report on the year's activities see The Birzeit Website - First Year Retrospective Report: 6 June 1996 - 6 June 1997 at http://www.birzeit.edu/web/1year.html
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12. This and the previous paragraph have been adapted from the Baraka proposal, Connecting Palestine's Policy Research NGO Sector, from May 1997, by Hanan Elmasu and Nigel Parry.
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13. Source: Internet consultant Fred Parker, 1996 from http://www.fredparker.com/
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14. See Appendix Two for specific information about Baraka's plans to implement this.
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15. See "Comment" in What's New on the Web at BZU?, at http://www.birzeit.edu/web/wnotw2.html, Vol. 1, Issue 2 for a fuller discussion of this issue.
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16. "Search engines" are websites with attached databases dedicated to the difficult task of cataloging and indexing the millions of existing websites. Search terms are entered by a user and a list of matching websites returned.
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17. Conducted on 16 August 1997, this is not a particularly scientific test, but illustrates the point in question. Hotbot is one of the few search engines that still returns a word count for your search terms. A search for "American" yielded 2,031,805 results, 27 times as many as the other two combined.
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18. See further discussion of this phenomenon in "Birzeit University through the eyes of the Western media" in Birzeit Newsletter, No. 26, August 1995, available at http://www.birzeit.edu/news/26media.html
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19. See Appendix Three.
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20. PASSIA only offers abstracts of its publications. However, PASSIA offers full notes of its seminars and intends to make its publications on Jerusalem available on its website without cost.
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21. See http://www.birzeit.edu/palnews/war/appeal.html
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22. For example, photographs were taken with normal cameras using 35mm film. When the clashes resulted in Palestinian deaths all shops in Ramallah, including photo developing studios, went on a commercial strike, preventing us from adding photos to the website for 3 days. With digital and video cameras with frame grabbers, the need for processing can be bypassed.
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23. See the Birzeit News report Dr. Jon Anderson lectures at Birzeit - Overview of Internet in the Arab World, 5 June 1997, available at http://www.birzeit.edu/bzunews/1997/Jun/5.html
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24. See entry for Palnet in Appendix Two for an example of current monthly access costs.
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25. Only a selection of the results is offered here for purposes of illustration.
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26. From the Baraka proposal.
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27. A "geek" is slang for someone who is very knowledgeable about the technical side of computers but a perceived lack of human interaction skills. To some extent this term has been "reclaimed" as the Web has increased in popularity.
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