#PalTweetUp

There are Palestinians living in Palestine who are using Twitter not just to tell the world what they had for breakfast, but also for the potential to disseminate information that could as Joseph Dana said, cut through the lies and narrative control of the western media.

Today's meeting was hatched from the brains of two fellow tweeps, who wanted a space where everyone can finally meet face to face, translating a virtual network into a solid one. I was at the beginning a bit skeptical (did we really have to meet? what if we work better alone than together?) but that was my rays of optimism at work as usual.

In the build-up to the meeting, there was a lot of excitement. We were going to Skype with our brethren in Gaza, and since it's been so long since we've last seen a Gazan we were breathless with anticipation. Would they look like us? Have normal human features? Would they be malnourished and exceedingly thin? Would their accents be as bad as the Yankee twang?

An hour before the scheduled time, I reminded my mother where I was going. She looked at me in disbelief, then accused me of not telling her before. We argued for a bit-apparently after I'd graduated I've been going out way too many times-before she finally asked what we were going to do. I casually mentioned Joseph Dana's name and she shook her head, saying "Whenever a foreigner comes to talk you all get excited, that's what's wrong with this activism thing. They laugh at you and you all lap it up. God I can't wait until your dad is finally allowed back in here."

I should've mentioned to her that Joseph is an American-Israeli. I would have loved to hear her thoughts on that. I was also slightly miffed. She calls me a ghooleh then laments my supposed naivete. Just because I'm the whitest thing in Palestine doesn't mean...

Anyway, I was left with one last chore to do before I finally headed out. When I arrived at Bazinga I was struck by the colorful beanbags on the floor, and tried to mentally match up faces with Twitter names. Someone did the right thing and just asked out loud our names. The next 15 minutes or so were spent trying to connect with the aliens in Gaza, and even then the audio-video quality was choppy.

"Hello can you hear us?"

"Yes habibi. Can you see us?"

"Yep, can you see us?"

"No not really..looks like you're all too far away."

They were sitting at a table in Delice cafe. We were spread out across a room, slouched onto beanbags. They looked eerily just like us. In fact, one of them could challenge me for the whitest thing in Palestine title. We didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Finally, a stable enough connection was established. We began doing the introduction rounds. Mine was terribly boring, completely forgot to mention I was also from Gaza and had trained an army of cousins there to do my bidding last time I was there. Then that infiltrator Joseph Dana got up to talk about his flotilla experience on the American ship The Audacity of Hope:

• Basically the flotilla was successful on the level that showed how important a role social media can play.
• He was surrounded by old mostly Jewish women on the boat-not to belittle their endeavors or anything but to highlight the hilarity of Israel's hysterical hyperbole of the boat being part of a major security threat to Israel
• A complaint was filed, later known to be from an Israeli legal center in Athens about the boat not being sea-worthy
• His opinion is that they should have sailed within the same hour they got wind of the complaint
• The crew and passengers were sitting in their hotel rooms talking incessantly of when they were going to set sail
• When they finally did, it was a demonstration of "hippie language on steroids" on the deck, a lot of hugging, excess emotion that got annoying for a while

Then the discussion fell about as to how to use Twitter wisely. A lot of strategic thinking needs to go into how to use Twitter because ultimately it's all about getting the best message through to most people. So we must reign in our moral righteousness and reserve using terms like "Apartheid" or "IOF" when talking about Israel as we would be largely written off as jihadists, peace-hating Ayrabs, terrorists, etc. Less is more. If we use simple neutral words to describe Israel in the same sentence that mention house evictions in Sheikh Jarrah or the invisible ethnic cleansing taking place in the Jordan Valley, the discrepancy will be all the more obvious.

Then it was the Gaza tweeps to offer us something. Unfortunately they were too shy to sing GYBO's latest song The Mystery/اللغز but they did propose to lip-sync along while the link played. The organizers of this tweet-up got in touch with Bilal Tamimi, one of the main documenters in the village, and asked him if he could make a compilation video of the protests in Nabi Saleh. As the familiar faces of the villagers flickered across the screen I felt so honored to know them personally, for them to have taken me in so readily, as their own sister and daughter and friend. It was set to the soundtrack of my childhood, يا نبض الضفة which along with the song Onadikom never fails to get me at least a little emotional. The first song has the story of Lina Nabulsi, the 14 year old schoolgirl who was shot back in 1976 as one of its refrain, and my nine year old egotistical self in a weird twisted way believed that song was made in my honor.

The audio-video connection became more shaky, and in the middle of discussing the need for an independent news website (later to be turned romantically into a newspaper) the connection was lost, most likely because the electricity went out in Gaza. I would have loved for those tweeps to have pitched in with their ideas and opinions but plans are already being made for next time to accomplish some proper and much needed interaction and conversations. Here in Ramallah, we are wondering why in Gaza the youth don't criticize Hamas more, either viciously or in matter of fact way.

Anyway, everyone agreed that the idea of a representative media forum is imperative, especially since Palestinian media is rubbish and to put it quite nicely, we have serious reservations about Ma'an News Agency, both English and Arabic. The brainstorming began: correspondences from the West Bank, Gaza, '48 areas, the diaspora ("sorry for the divisions!"), the issue of internet security, the whole not-everyone-who-blogs-can-write-newsworthy-pieces colloquy, the content, the web design, etc.

Overall, it was simply refreshing to be in the presence of honest, smart, intelligent people with no political affiliations whatsoever (except for that infiltrator). It wasn't enough to just talk but also to share suggestions, plan productively, all for the hopes of breaking the stagnated work of Palestinian youths under occupation.

Gaza Youth Breaks Out

When we first read the manifesto almost two weeks ago, our initial reaction was nothing short of being delighted. Nothing grabs our attention as forcefully as some serious case of fuck-ficking.

"Fuck Israel. Fuck Hamas. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!"

Brilliant. Those first few lines adequately captured the boiling sentiment that we feel our generation ought to be experiencing, had fifty percent actually cared. We read on, thoroughly engrossed. Mainstream media has the tendency of portraying the people in Gaza as Hamas fanatics. That's about as true as saying the Palestinians in the West Bank are ardent supporters of Fateh. The manifesto expressed serious disapproval and sneering hostility toward Hamas, as GYBO described them as mentally incarcerating those in Gaza and imposing an authoritarian regime in telling people how to think, behave, live etc. They then went on to describe their miserable lives fraught with hope and happiness and at the end asked for three things: Freedom, Normal Lives (the ability of living in such a way), and Peace. The full proclamation can be read here.

Well. We were certainly enthralled! And our joyous mood further increased upon learning that this anonymous group of university students, with all their frustrations about a life cruelly restricted by the hawkish totalitarian eyes of Hamas, the strangulation of the siege, and the dominant destructive occupying force of Israel on a tiny immensely overcrowded strip of land, has attracted overwhelming support in such a short time period. Finally, we thought, a voice has spoken up, determined to shed light on the reality of what they go through in a way news reporters and journalists can never quite capture. After the years of passive silence on behalf of our generation, one small corner have let rip with exactly how they feel. We dreamed of drafting a similar mandate..."We, the youth in the West Bank, are so fed up with Israel, Fateh, the occupation, the violation of human rights, and the indifference of the international community!"

But then...something seemed a bit off. It was a small niggling feeling, but it was there nonetheless. This extraordinary piece of work has amassed thousands of supporters in such a brief amount of time...its popularity is unprecedented owing to the fact of being the first of its kind, yet more than one comment began to surface that this manifesto was in reality the clever work of Zionists. That these kids were commissioned and being pulled along their strings by the slick and manipulative gross hands of the so called professed enemy-Israel. That the enemy was in fact Hamas, and that these words were written to garner even more disgust and 'liberating operations' to effectively get rid of their ruling power. That even if the integrity of the manifesto was true, the Zionists would pounce upon it and seize it to further their own interests by their used methods of fabrication, slander, and lies. We held our breath, disappointment and resentment trickling in our hearts. Were we that naive to so readily champion the manifesto?

And then we got slapped in the face with THIS.

Lord, we feel so much at ease now. Quick excerpts:

"Many activists reject our movement and consider us as some Zionist machinery because in the manifesto, we’ve been denouncing Hamas – among others."

"Our followers, readers, and those who are not supporting us yet must keep in mind THIS message: we have ONE enemy which is the Zionist Occupier."

"What we want is UNITY, and NO MORE DIVISION, because it makes Israeli terrorism’s impact on our lives even worse."

"Our call is a call for SOLIDARITY, a call for PEACEFUL ACTION; we are holding out our hands & waiting for you to complete the bond. Make sure this is read, help us work for a better solution, HELP US MAKE IT!"

Our tiny doubt must have risen from the initial poorly worded manifesto, and we're not blaming them-English isn't their first language and they can be afforded some slack. We're now burning with curiosity as to what their next move will be, what their plan of action is, what it is they have in mind, how they will act, how they will counter act against censorship and possible infiltration and arrests. The first step is gathering support, then what? How do they expect to work with their supporters in accomplishing or at least working out a solution for the present injustices they (and we) endure on a daily basis if they committed to maintaining their identities a secret?

We honestly hope that this does become successful and a preclude to chapters forming in West Bank cities soon, and not just one of those We came We saw We conquered and now We sleep. Palestine desperately lacks university activism. Fingers crossed that will change.

Fuck Israel!

Because we couldn't resist. Shit, no pun intended.