Internet an opening to the outside world

The internet provides humanity with an opportunity that did not exist before – fast, direct and cheap telecommunications. New chat software allows people to communicate easily and meet many people they would never have been able to before.

This has been a natural development for people living in modern open societies. However, such a development in closed societies is highly exceptional. This explains the high level uptake, despite lack of the financial resources to own a computer in every home.

In the Palestinian territories, which are among the tensest areas in the world and more subjected to isolation and closure, the internet has been widely used. The start of the third millennium coincided with new a series of confrontations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, continuous closures and complete isolation from the outside world. This accelerated internet usage.

For residents of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, accessing the internet is an opportunity, albeit limited, to come out of a state of isolation. Many levels of the state of closure are overcome. The feelings of tension and emptiness that closure leads to can be dealt with in this way. Internet cafes spread quickly in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, the number of those with access to computers at home the workplace increased.

Using the internet provides a chance for hundreds of thousands of young people to search for ways out of their isolation. They have launched dozens of group websites through which they discuss their concerns and problems. They also discuss political and social issues, establishing relations between themselves and other people around the world.

A quick view of the internet shows how active young Palestinians are through their cultural and media websites. Some such websites are among the most popular Arabic language websites. They are also active in clubs for the young and the educated from around the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Since ideas are freely exchanged over the internet, almost without censorship, young people can deal openly with opinions on forbidden subjects. Previous generations could never discuss these topics with such a level of freedom – sex, religion and politics. The internet allows access to information on many such subjects.

The age of the internet has enabled people to follow events in neighboring countries and the world in detail. It has also allowed people knowledge of political and social problems in places of tension resulting from political, doctrinal and ethnic issues.

As time went by, the internet established a new culture – the culture of chat. This culture is based on the disclosure of secrets and free exchange of opinion. However, it also embodies an ability to deviate and dodge. People can hide behind a mask that keeps their true identity from others.

Not only has the internet provided the opportunity for Arab citizens to communicate with Arabic speakers from other Arab countries, but also with Arabic speakers living in other countries. This has given rise to a language whose level is close to that of spoken Arabic. This appears in the literary productions posted on cultural sites.

The internet has also allowed communication with other people using another language – English. This language is used weakly. Shortened terms that transform numbers into words are often used. The purpose is to keep up with the fast-moving speed of technology – whether using a microphone or the keyboard.

Direct and easy communications lead to formation of groups that would take longer in local situations. If the spread of the internet has empowered the social and cultural dimensions of globalization, it has also facilitated formation of anti-globalization groups that use the internet to extend their ideas and contact new supporters in different places.

Internet cafes, especially those in the Gaza Strip, have also become the target of extremist groups. They are making themselves known in the densely populated strip by targeting internet cafes under different pretexts. They want to shut them down and deprive 1.5 million people of outside communications.

The people have found themselves locked up in a narrow geographic prison for six years with no way out except the internet. This is how the contradictory faces of responding to isolation can be explained – a phenomenon of extremist groups and a high state of preparedness for emigration that have nowadays attacked young Palestinians.

Internet an opening to the outside world

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