Overview July 1999: Palestine territories

1. Overview

The Information Technology platforms' extension and improvement is the main goal of Palestinian Universities. The key player and ringleader in this field is unambiguously the Birzeit University. The oldest Palestinian University was the first to install Windows-based LAN followed by peregrination to the cyberspace and becoming one of the richest information sources in Palestine.

Under the aegis of Birzeit University, a Palestinian IT Special Interest Group (ITSIG) which consists of professionals in the IT field was formed about two years ago. Its objectives are to influence and promote the development of IT in Palestine, to create advisory bodies, to influence policy makers about IST and, in general, to raise the awareness about IS.

There are some international agencies that have become indirectly involved in the development of IT in Palestine. Amongst them is the Center for Private Enterprise Development (CPED), an EU-funded project aiming at the support of Palestinian enterprises in order to acquire competitive advantages in local, regional and world markets. One of its immediate targets are IT oriented companies and business associations.

Other organizations have begun to promote the return or the involvement of the Palestinian expatriate workforce in the developments in Palestine in all fields. Amongst these activities are the TOKTEN Palestinian program under the UNDP/PAPP umbrella (United Nations Development Program / Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People) and the MARHABA program.

Baraka, a Palestinian NGO Network, was created to service the extensive demands of Palestinians. Around mid-1996, it launched its first website and at the same time, the UNDP provided Internet and e-mail connections for the Palestinian Universities.

Palnet Ltd. was the first commercial Internet Service Provider created in 1995. Palnet provides wireless access to Internet, the first of its kind in the Middle East.

It would have been a remarkable omission if we did not mention the PaLestinian Academic NETwork (PLANET) at Al-Quds University, a leading Educational Internet Service Provider in Palestine. Planet links universities, colleges as well as schools with the Web. It also links Research Centers and some non-governmental organizations. PLANET links most of the Palestinian ministries using wireless means of communication such as VSAT and microwave devices. It offers connectivity between cities and within cities through leased lines provided by PALTEL. PLANET's mission is to provide the necessary organizational, technical and academic infrastructure, whereby Palestinian academicians, scholars and researchers will be able to have access to international academic resources and references, communicate with peer scholars, connect local Palestinian universities in a national communications network.

The use of IT in Palestine is spreading in a fast way among institutions, companies and individuals. The benefits of developing IT in Palestine are enormous. Yet to create an IT literate society and an IT based economy requires planning, cooperation and resources. The main responsibility for those concerned with the development of IT in Palestine are to promote strategic development of the sector, and to influence decision and policy makers in giving IT a high national priority. There are no national or regional strategies for the promotion of IT in Palestine till now.

2. Promotional activities

1. June 1998 Birzeit University and UNESCO Cairo Office, organized in Ramallah a five-day multimedia workshop (14-18/6/1998) focused on "building interactive media for technical education and training using multimedia software tools". The same promotional activity took place in Gaza, organized by the Islamic University of Gaza and the UNESCO Cairo Office (13-17/12/1998).

2. November 1998 In mid-November 1998, the Special Academic Affairs Committee of Birzeit University and the Ramallah Chamber of Commerce, co-organized the first computer and technology exhibition in order to demonstrate the importance of computer technology to the students and the wider Palestinian population.

3. May 1999 In May 1999, Palestine Telecommunications Co (PALTEL) started to perform final tests for a new mobile system named Al-Jawal scheduled to be launched in June 1999. With this new mobile system, Palestinians will have their own service. According to Mr. Hatem Halawani, PALTEL's CEO, the company hopes to launch this service widely in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

4. May 1999 The ESIS II-European Survey on Information Society Initiative was presented in Amman on May the 7^th, to all major Jordanian, Palestinian and international press and media agencies. The Press Conference has been organised by Trans Jordan for Telecommunications Services Co. – alo, which is the national contractor in Jordan and responsible for the promotional activities in Palestine.

5. October 1999The Information Technology Unit at Birzeit University, announced that in October 1999 will take place the third conference on the Information Technology in Higher Education.

3. Projects

• A joint project between Palnet, one of the most dynamic Palestine's ISPs, and K5M, the first restaurant-café in Ramallah, resulted to the establishment of the first Palestinian Internet Café called Palnet@K5M.
  
• TOKTEN (Transfer Of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) is funded by the Government of Japan and since its inception, a lot of missions with Palestinian Ministries, institutions, municipalities, universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and research centers are operational, forthcoming or completed. TOKTEN has been proved beneficial in many areas addressing two prime challenges: the development of Palestine's priority areas and the opportunity offering to Palestinian professional living abroad to participate to the aforementioned development. Due to TOKTEN, it has taken place the establishment of a potential user roster (ministries, institutions) with a description of their technical needs and the updating of a roster of Palestinian professionals living abroad and willing to undertake short term missions to the West Bank and Gaza. Some of the areas where TOKTEN is active are: Computer Sciences, Urban Planning, Public Finance, Civil Engineering.
  
• MARHABA, a Palestinian white page directory that is sponsored by Palnet, Baraka, and Birzeit University, offers an on-line free-access database where there are amassed details about profession,company/organization, city of residence, city of origin, henceforth facilitating the communication among Palestinians.
  
• Finally there are projects at the educational level. Amongst those are the IT Unit project being developed by Birzeit University which targets the professional and the university’s IT community, the Training Center of the Government Computer Centre (GCC) which primarily targets the Government employees, the FUTUREKIDS project by the Welfare Association which targets school children and the Across Borders Project that was initiated in January 1999 by Birzeit University Information Technology Unit. It aims to bring Internet technology into Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East and will see the creation of bilingual (English/Arabic) camp websites, including on-line news, oral history and stories from Palestinians refugees. The Across Borders Project also aims to facilitate the connection of refugees with each other. The pilot phase of the project was launched in Deheishe Camp, near Bethlehem at the Ibdaa Centre.