Human Rights Documentation in Palestine

According to this online article in New Media and Development Communication: Human Rights: New Challenges and Applications from graduate students of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, media have played a major role in how the world views and assesses the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The authors discuss the role of new media and the challenges Palestinians have faced in finding ways to supply accurate information about the realities of Israeli Occupation and human rights abuses and in conveying this information to a global audience.

Though other Arab nations have activists who use blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook to disseminate information and organise protests and strikes, Palestinian use of new media is, as stated here, more limited. Though numbers of households with internet access is increasing, 74.9% said they do not use the internet as a source of news. The authors found that one of the main hindrances to online access in Palestine is the fact that Palestinian providers depend on Israeli servers, which can block or censor service at the discretion of the Israeli state.

Human rights advocacy organisations working to improve documentation of the occupation are seeking to use internet video posting. The Israeli human rights organisation B'tselem has implemented a human rights documentation programme which furnishes rural Palestinians with video cameras in order to document abuses committed by Israeli settlers. B'tselem has been the organisation behind the media release of several videos documenting human rights abuses of Palestinians. Two videos included as examples are an interview with seventeen-year-old Salam Kanaan who captured footage of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man, Ashraf Abu Rahma, being shot at close range by an Israeli soldier during a four-day curfew on her village of Ni’lin, and a separate video of abusive blindfolding and binding of another Palestinian, which major news outlets including the BBC and CNN rebroadcast after it appeared on Israeli TV.

The authors describe a media programme at Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp "that trains young Palestinian refugees in radio, broadcast and print media skills. Projects include Village Documentation, where youths created sound, video and photographic documentaries after visiting their destroyed villages inside the 1948 green line, and Ibdaa Radio 194, named after UN Resolution 194 guaranteeing the right of return to all Palestinian refugees. Ibdaa does not have a broadcast license, but its website links to radio programmes and other online media projects. Another project is Digital Storytelling, in which Palestinian youths create short narratives using video and audio technology."

Facebook social network site includes more than 40,000 people in its Palestine network and was the subject of a successful campaign to reinstate Palestine as a network choice after its removal by Facebook administrators in 2006. However, the authors observe: "While Facebook groups related to Palestine are very effective in disseminating information among their members, it is unclear what impact they will have, if any, on perceptions of Palestine outside of the proportionally small niche of Facebook users who are already involved in Palestine related groups. This raises the question of the ultimate goal of social networking: if it is intended to inspire real-world change, then the use of Facebook in Palestine has thus far proved ineffective."

Blogging, now a source of information exchange, debate, and social commentary, could play a role in aiding global understanding of everyday Palestinian life under the occupation. What the authors describe as "the best known blogger on the Palestinian occupation", internationally featured in the United Kingdom (UK) Guardian, is an Israeli dissenter, Seth Freedman. Palestinian blogging is reported here to be increasing with the voices of Qossay Abu-Zaitoun and Laila El-Haddad.

The authors conclude that: "Human rights organizations operating in the Palestinian territories should be focusing on ICT training and diversifying existing media skills. While training should include international aid workers, media centers, and journalists, training should not overlook the Palestinian people, particularly their voices also need to be heard. Enhancing the new media environment will not come without challenges, and it may not have an immediate effect on Western opinion, but it can provide Palestinians with an outlet that they currently do not have. It can also provide Palestinian society with the tools necessary to engage in a wider, more democratic debate about domestic issues unrelated to the occupation, thus providing a strong foundation for a future democratic state."

This material was created in the 2008 class "New Media and Development Communication" with Professor Anne Nelson, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).