PDAF
Goals and Objectives:
- To increase awareness among members of the Palestinian public about digital rights issues and challenges.
- To develop Palestinian digital activism and create a space for exchange of experiences and expertise with local and international counterparts.
- To increase Palestinian digital rights activists access to local and international power holders to facilitate changes in policies and practices.
#PDAF2020
The recent spread of Coronavirus (Covid 19) contributed to the fabrication and spread of false news through the Internet in general and through social media platforms in particular. At a time when citizens rely on social media platforms as a source of news, the importance of these platforms for spreading news related to the virus increases, as social media users publish the latest news (trends) related to it, including what is verified, and some of what is classified as false or misleading news. .
This virtual session from the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2020 will discuss a set of issues, including the definition of false news, why is it spreading rapidly among people? mechanisms for verifying false news, and what is the role of social media users when discovering false or misleading news locally and internationally? Read More …
In light of the recurring digital rights violations and arrests on the basis of expressing opinion by the Israeli occupation authoritiesو the Palestinian Authority, and the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the violations that are being practiced through social media companies, espionage companies via the Internet and other giant technology companies, and practicing digital discrimination against Palestinians, this (virtual) digital session from the Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2020 aims to highlight the violations of Palestinian digital human rights by local authorities, and to discuss the most important Israeli strategies and tactics used to narrow Palestinians digital rights, and digital discrimination against the Palestinians by global technology companies.
How a personal initiative turned into a global event..
The digital economy has opened up opportunities for young people all over the world to challenge and overcome unemployment. However, Palestinian youth face many challenges in this field due to the Israeli occupation’s control of technological infrastructure in Palestine and depriving them of the most basic rights to economic development. In addition to the submission of major companies to strong governments as the occupation government. despite these challenges, Palestinian entrepreneurs are developing technological solutions that challenge difficulties and overcome constraints.
Since 2006, Gaza has suffered from a suffocating blockade which has turned it into an area that is not suitable for life. This siege extended to the digital space where the government in Gaza sought to confront activists in the digital space. The siege also extended to include the digital domain which made the accessibility of the Internet in the Gaza Strip far and difficult especially the accessibility of the third generation of the internet, which essentially arrived late to Palestine, but is still not accessible by the residents of the Strip. However, the residents of the Gaza Strip tried to communicate their voice to the world in various ways, breaking the actual siege digitally.
This session discusses the most important challenges facing digital rights in the Gaza Strip, and reviews the most important and prominent digital campaigns to break the siege, as well as the aspirations and hopes of the people of the Gaza Strip to access to the Internet. Read More …
Palestinians in general face challenges to their digital rights, while these challenges are further complicated when it comes to the Gaza Strip, which suffers a suffocating blockade since 2006. This is reflected into difficulties and challenges in this space related to economic, social and political life, and this is why the Palestine Digital Activism Forum devotes this digital (Virtual) session to discuss the challenges of the digital economy facing Gazans, digital gender violence such as cyber harassment and bullying, and finally online information security. Read More …
Israel tried to expand its control over the Palestinians and align the tools of its actual control on the ground to control and digitally restrict and occupy the Palestinians, through a set of strategies and tactics it used to contribute to this. This includes developing laws that contribute to digitally suppressing the Palestinians and restricting their freedom of opinion and expression and their right to document the violations of the occupation against them and other laws. It also develops the digital surveillance technologies which is being tested on the Palestinians and then works to market and sell them to repressive dictatorships around the world. Strategies are not confined with these practices, but go beyond this to include inciting against Palestinians, hate speech and encouraging violence against them on social media platforms.
This session focuses on presenting the most prominent Israeli control strategies on the Palestinian space in the Internet, and the impact of Israeli digital surveillance industries on human rights defenders. It also reviews the results of the racism and incitement index prepared by 7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement on an annual basis, which showed an increase in the percentage of incitement across the network against the Palestinians by 14% in 2019, reflected in a violent publication against Arabs and Palestinians every 64 seconds. Read More …
Even though you might only be beginning to develop your own organised approach to security, it is good to know that your natural survival mechanisms are already hard at work to keep you safe. However, there are times when our instincts are not trustworthy and we should exercise caution. What mechanisms do human rights defenders need in the digital world, the risks, and how to develop protection mechanisms? Read More …
In this lecture, we intend to answer 6 basic questions. What is the media culture and its importance? What is false news and why do people spread it? How do you verify false news? The difference between opinion and truth? What do you do when you discover false news ?, What is Misbar and what do we do? Read More …
Be the next Palestine Ambassador
Do you believe your community (and the world) should know more about what’s going on in Palestine? If so, Palestine needs you.
#PalestineAmbassador سفير فلسطين# Read More …
LIVE
You can watch the live Proadcast of the forum panels from march 24 – 26 through this space
Relevant Researches
“Access Denied – E-Commerce in Palestine” – A new research by 7amleh Center about Palestinin Access to E-Commerce
7amleh – The Arab Center for Advancement of Social Media published “Access Denied – E-Commerce in Palestine.” The research highlights how occupation, failure to fulfil the Oslo Accords and digital discrimination from international tech companies have stunted the development of the Palestinian economy and created challenges for Palestinian buyers, sellers, and workers online.
“Access Denied – E-Commerce in Palestine” – A new research by 7amleh Center about Palestinin Access to E-Commerce
7amleh – The Arab Center for Advancement of Social Media...
Index of Racism and Incitement 2019: Israeli elections were the primary reason for increasing incitement against Arabs
7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, published the results of its annual Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli Social Media in 2019. The research revealed that the peak of incitement against Palestinians and Arabs in 2019 was correlated with the two rounds of the Israeli election. It also shows that there was a 14% rise in violent discourse towards Arabs and Palestinians, with one violent post every 64 seconds, and at least one out of every 11 posts about Arabs using inciting language.
Index of Racism and Incitement 2019: Israeli elections were the primary reason for increasing incitement against Arabs
27th Feb 2020 Publications
299
Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli social media reveals the amount of anti-Palestinian incitement.
– One violent post against Arabs and Palestinians every 64 seconds
– 495,000 violent posts against Arabs and Palestinians in 2019
– The Joint List and its leaders were the primary subjects of violent discourse in 2019… for more
Index of Racism and Incitement 2019: Israeli elections were the primary reason for increasing incitement against Arabs
7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social...
PDAF Guests
Shahed Al Hindi
Shahed Al Hindi is a Public Policy Manager at Facebook, with a focus on human rights in MENA. Shahed works on a variety of issues including content, safety, freedom of expression and hate speech. She regularly meets with stakeholders in region to develop more inclusive policies, in line with the basic principles of human rights. Additionally, she works closely with civil society organisations in conflict zones to ensure these voices are heard, represented and to help build a safer platform. Shahed received her Bachelor of Law with Honours from Kingston University, London, specialising in International Public, Criminal and Human Rights Law and obtained her Master of Laws in International Financial Law from Kings’ College University.
Shahed Al Hindi
Public Policy Manager, Human Rights, MENA
Sam Bahour
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American based in Al-Bireh-Ramallah, Palestine; he is a managing partner of the Applied Information Management (AIM). Bahour serves as a co-founder and chairman of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy and a board member and policy adviser at Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. He frequently writes on Palestinian affairs and is the co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians. Bahour is also a blogger at epalestine.com.
Sam Bahour
Managing Partner, Applied Information Management (AIM)
Soheir Asaad
Soheir Asaad is International Advocacy Coordinator in Adalah. She is a lawyer and has an LL.M. degree with honors from the Center for Civil & Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame (US), with a focus on international human rights law. Soheir also holds an LL.B. from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is a Fulbright scholar and, with a scholarship from Notre Dame’s Center for Civil & Human Rights, Soheir worked as a research fellow at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies in Tunisia. She has also worked previously as parliamentary advisor to Parliament Member Haneen Zoabi, focusing on the rights of Palestinian women. Soheir is also a Palestinian political and feminist activist.
Soheir Asaad
International Advocacy Coordinator - Adalah
Sari Taha
Sari Taha is a Palestinian engineer and entrepreneur from Jerusalem. He is very active in advancing the Palestinian entrepreneurial ecosystem and volunteers a lot of his time in mentoring promising entrepreneurs and advising projects with strategic values. He was a co-founder of a Canadian renewable energy startup. He also worked as an Investment analyst in a venture capital fund called Takwin labs based in Haifa city. For the past two years he was the program manager of Rawabi Tech Hub. in 2018, he joined the co-founding team of Doroob Technologies; a Palestinian startup that specializes in navigation and location-based solutions. Also, he recently also started working as an entrepreneurship consultant with The World Bank Group. Sari is a connector and campaigner by nature who alternates between getting work done on a grassroots level while keeping an eye on the big picture and global developmental and technology trends. He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Birzeit University and he earned his MBA from the Technion Institute of Technology.
Sari Taha
Principal Consultant - Momentum Labs
Nadim Nashif
Nadim Nashif is a Social Entrepreneur & Digital Rights Defender, Executive Director and Co-Founder of 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (Palestine), Co-Founder of Wusul Digital Academy a digital marketing School. He is a committed Digital Rights Defender and community organizer. He has worked on youth and community development issues for the past 20 years. In 2013, he co-founded 7amleh – The Arab Center for Social Media, which is focused on strengthening Palestinian’s ability to use social media and digital activism tools to defend human rights online.
Nadim Nashif
Executive Director of 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
Heba Al Abadlah
She worked in a group of radios and editorial boards since 2011 such as Palestine Youth Radio, Voice of Al Watan, and the Voice of Al-Azhar. She also worked as the head of the University Initiative “From You and To You”. She trained with a Falaystiniat Foundation in the field of debates for the debates league held by the Foundation for university students, and she works as director of the Public Relations Department in Panorama Integrated Services Company.
Heba Al Abadlah
Journalist and a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Media Club
Dima Al Lababidi
She currently works as a university lecturer at Al-Aqsa University and a content writer for Ditor Business Solutions. She previously worked as a TV presenter on Palestine Today Satellite TV, and worked in the field of audio broadcasting. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and a BA in radio and television. ”
Dima Al Lababidi
Journalist
Nour Swirki
Nour Swirki, is a Palestinian feminist, journalist and human rights defender. Has the MA degree of journalism and worked in that field for many years focusing on women and gender issues until she found a new challenge by working as a human rights associate in the office of high commissioner for human rights Gaza sub office. Recently she moved to work in Center for Women’s Legal research and Consulting and protection, a women organization providing services and protection to the GBV survivors in Gaza Strip. Nour is committed to the human rights approach to build the humanity
Nour Swirki
project assistant - Center for Women's Legal research and Consulting and protection
PDAF Team
Alison Carmel
International Relations
Amal Nazzal
Researcher and Assistant Professor at Birzeit University
Haneen Odetallah
Admin & Finance Officer
Hijazy Natsheh
Startups Accelerator Manager
PDAF Recent News
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