Palestinian media activists fight back Israel and Abbas’ blocking of digital news outlets
By Staff Reporter
THE Palestinian Information Centre has condemned actions by Israel and the West Bank-based Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to institute cybercrime laws that led to the blocking of 22 news websites reporting on occupied Palestine.
Speaking during the opening session of a three-day event dubbed ‘Digital Media for Palestine Forum’, which has kicked off in one of Turkey’s capitals, Istanbul, director of the Palestinian Information Centre (PIC) Abu Hassan called for stakeholders to devise ways of confronting the persistent targeting of Palestinian news websites and social media platforms by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Hassan called for the organisation of popular campaigns that could influence decision-makers and exert pressure on internet service providers to dissuade them from blocking Palestinian websites and social media pages.
He underlined the importance of communicating with international non-governmental organisations and establishing strategic partnerships with them in order to work towards getting decision-makers to reverse or limit the laws they use to prevent access to news on the internet.
“Another way to confront the blocking of news is to continue exposing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and debunk its claims, and to find or create alternative platforms to serve the Palestinian cause,” he said. “There is need not to abandon the use of global social media websites and platforms, for they are still important tools to familiarise other peoples, like in Malaysia, Indonesia and India, with the Palestinian cause.”
Hassan also spoke about the exposure of journalists and media institutions to frenzied suppression campaigns by Israel and the Palestinian Authority and also highlighted the ‘cybercrime law’ that was enacted by President Abbas and led to the blocking of 22 Palestinian websites, including that of the PIC, which recently hit four million likes on Facebook.
