An Egyptian hacker managed on Sunday to hack into the website of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and placed a picture of Egyptian soldiers raising the Egyptian flag in Sinai during the October, 6, 1973, on the sites’ homepage. The hack came a few days after the Israeli army shot and killed five Egyptian soldiers across the border, following the Eilat shooting. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and 30 others were wounded when Palestinian gunmen infiltrated into Eilat and opened fire at a military bus, and a number of vehicles. The hacker who managed to penetrate the webpage of Netanyahu wrote “Anti Zionism”; the site was then gradually taken offline. The hack is seen as a symbolic message to Netanyahu regarding the ongoing Israeli military escalation, and illegal occupation of Palestine and Arab territory. The hacker also wrote “Egypt is the greatest civilization, established more than 7000 years ago, but the terrorist state of Israel stole the Palestinian lan...

The iGaza iPhone app is in the news - it gets a shout-out in a story on the Jerusalem Post site about a project aiming to catch up with what two pro-Israel developers admit is the more social-media savvy pro-Palestine effort. A pilot project, Like For Israel is designed to be a tool for pro-Israel activists around the world, regardless of political views, to connect, share information and meet. The pair says they launched after noticing an absence of pro-Israel supporters and activists in worldwide social media circles. If there was any voice at all, they say, it was disorganized and disengaged from other sources. That disconnect, Hachamov says, was reflected in what he finds is a growing voice in support of the deligitimization of Israel. "We feel as social media guys, it's not ... equal currently between what Israel hasbara is doing, and what the Palestinians are doing."... ...The prevailing notion of delegitimization "is really a strategic threat," ... Hacha...

If you were wondering how Mossad and the Israeli foreign office have managed to improve (sort of) on their clumsy and inept intelligence gathering and propaganda so quickly, especially in regard to the drawing up of the 'blacklist' of people to be prevented from reaching occupied Palestine, it's because they are being helped by Facebook. We humbly suggest the obvious: be careful what you post on Facebook. From Canada's The Star TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—Aided by Facebook, Israel on Friday prevented scores of pro-Palestinian activists from boarding Tel Aviv-bound flights in Europe, questioned dozens more upon arrival at its main airport and denied entry to 69, disrupting their attempts to reach the West Bank on a solidarity mission with the Palestinians. Israel had tracked the activists on social media sites, compiled a blacklist of more than 300 names and asked airlines to keep those on the list off flights to Israel. On Friday, 310 of the activists who managed to land in Tel Av...

From The Marker (Haaretz) The closer the date of the unilateral declaration approaches, the more the denizens of Internet are coming to life, promoting their opinions with ever-accelerating urgency. Their battle zone is the social media. You can see it in the Facebook statuses - for and against, in Twitter messages and in protest video clips on YouTube. The nearer September approaches, and with it the UN debate, the more this online activity is likely to escalate. But don't think the State of Israel is leaving the battlefield to the amateurs. "We are intensively preparing ahead of September," says Chaim Shacham, head of the information and Internet department at the Foreign Ministry. Think of him as the Israeli government's tweeter. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor adds: "We all expect something to happen in September. We don't know what yet, but clearly there's going to be some sort of diplomatic development. We have our finger on the pulse in te...

Gaza students aim to launch movement aimed at overcoming the divisions that have split the Palestinian national struggle. It all kicks off on #15march. The facebook page is here Their movement has no name and no leaders. Just a goal, and a tool. The goal is to force an end to the political divisions among Palestinians by stirring the youth of Gaza and the West Bank to emulate their brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Their tool – as elsewhere – is the internet, specifically Facebook. "End The Division", a page in both Arabic and English, calls for protests across the Palestinian territories and refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon on 15 March. It has already got thousands of supporters, and is growing by the day. The Gaza students behind the Facebook page refuse to give their real names for fear of arrest. They arrange meetings through trusted intermediaries on neutral ground and send emissaries to sound out public figures and politicians. "This will become...

Egypt's blogger are risking the wrath of their dictatorial state with today's show of solidarity with Gaza, given the regime's role in maintaining the blockade, affirmed by the building of a steel fence along the border to deter tunneling. CAIRO: Egyptian Internet activists have agreed to change their profile photos on the popular social networking site Facebook on Tuesday as part of Arab Unity and support with the “resilience of Palestinians in Gaza.” The group will be celebrating the steadfastness of the Gaza people who have been under economic and political blockade for their 1,000th day “without bowing to the U.S.-Israeli domination.” Egyptian bloggers and activists have called for the “electronic day” against the siege in support of Palestinian steadfastness and have highlighted that those who struggle to regain their rights “inevitably will attain it even if it takes a long time.” more

In another sign of the problems piling up for Israel the government is pouring money into trying to shape and distort any news, discussion or comment on Palestine. They're not very good at it as you can probably see from some of the comments on this blog. The main attribute of these posters seems to be arrogance and their main weapon abuse - as well as shock that there are so many people around the world that disagree with them and prefer to support the so-called terrorists that have the temerity to try and defend their people militarily against occupation and oppression. By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth July 22, 2009 " Information Clearing House " -- The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitter and Facebook may not be all that it seems. Israel’s Foreign Ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to su...

Pro-Palestinian blogger was released by the Egyptian security forces last Friday (27 March). We reported on the case at the time of his detention seven weeks ago - here Egyptian police have released a pro-Palestinian student and blogger who had been arrested outside his home early last month, a human rights group said on Saturday. Diaeddin Gad was released Friday morning after spending almost seven weeks in jail, said Gamal Eid, executive director for the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). Eid accused police of beating Gad in detention. AFP

We received a complaint today from the Al-Arabiya News Channel concerning the use of a picture and quotes from a report without attribution. Regular readers of this blog will know we are in the habit of attributing and linking back to all excerpts from news sources cited. This was an oversight on our part and the credits have now been added to the post. We also try to provide picture credits when these are known. Al-Arabiya do not provide the name of the photgrapher that takes their pictures(s)on the website but if they supply the name it will of course be added. We are not in the business of trying to steal photographers' and journalists' work. We believe the practice of citing content on blogs is fair usage where it links back to the original content and this is now standard practice on the internet. Nevertheless the corporate media has been trying to assert total control over its content on the internet but has not been able to successfully win this position in any court of ...

http://internetforactivists.blogspot.com/ Timetable and speakers for the Internet for Activists conference being held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) next Saturday, 14 March. No advance registration required - just turn up. Also, if you have any ideas for workshops etc send an email to the organisers at: internetforactivists@googlemail.com

From SolomonsMindfield and here internetforactivists.blogspot.com We would like to invite you to our conference on the 14 March entitled "The Internet for Activists 2009". We are students who have seen internet tactics build successful campaigns and gain publicity for important issues. Our aim is to set up a free conference where advanced internet activists can share their expertise with others and different activist groups can meet to share their own experience, both of the web and the street. A one day conference on how to effectively use the internet for activism. Experts in their fields will give seminars, workshops, Laptop urgery and there will be stalls and food. Full programme to be published once it has been finalised.