Global Voices » Nicole Hyman

Israel: The Land of Fire and Ice

Nicole Hyman — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:14:11 +0000

Severe winter storms hit most of Israel this week with strong winds, rain and snowstorms causing country-wide havoc. In the North, the Hermon Mountain was blanketed with more snow than the country has seen in 20 years. This happened days after the Carmel region was devastated by forest fires which left 43 dead and caused damage estimated at between 100-120 million Shekels.

For many, these storms provide welcome relief from the drought the country has been experiencing. The Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main water reservoir, has risen five centimetres as a result of the storms.

This sentiment is echoed by many in the Israeli twitosphere. @Tekhelet said:

I am glad Israel has storm/rain and snow now. Baruch HaShem. Thank you Father!

Despite the havoc, disruption and inconvenience caused many were simply grateful for the rain. @MaozIsrael added:

Snow and rain in #Israel! God is answering our prayers!

But these storms weren't the answer to everyone's prayers. Although in desperate need of rain, the storms also caused country-wide damage.

The Maoz Israel blog published some pictures of the destruction caused by the storms:

Tel Aviv's beach battered by gale force winds and heavy storms

Alone in Holy Land, a Romanian blogger living in Ashdod, described what it was like to get caught in the storm while driving with her family to Eilat:

In was absolutely hellish! First, it was the wind, very strong and then the sand…When we reached Mitzpe Ramon it was so cold and windy … I was terrified. The gales of wind kept hitting the car from one side, then the other and I was panic stricken. Not even able to utter one word. My stomach was the size of a pea and the throat constricted… Unbelievable…while I was muttering prayers under my breath and pretending I was somewhere else. At the end of our trip, some 30 km before Eilat, the sand storm stopped abruptly, the sky became clear and the sun was back on the sky.

And then there were those who threw caution to the wind and took advantage of the stormy conditions. Shahar Zubari, an Israeli windsurfer, braved the weather and headed for the waves.

Israel: Pixies Pull Show Stopper

Nicole Hyman — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:07:20 +0000

Doolittle album cover (1989) Pixies

In the wake of mounting international criticism and condemnation of Israel’s clash with activists intent on breaking the blockade on Gaza, the Pixies, a veteran rock band, have canceled their concert in Israel. This comes hot on the heels of performance cancellations by the Klaxons, Gorillaz Sound System as well as Elvis Costello. However, it was news of the Pixies no show that hotted up the Twitosphere and got many finding the link between music and politics.

The Pixies did not specify the reason behind the last minute cancellatio. Shuki Weiss, the band’s Tel Aviv promoter, released this statement:

בצער רב אנו מודיעים היום על החלטת הפיקסיז לבטל הופעתם בישראל
It is with great regret that we announce today The Pixies' decision to cancel their appearance

This sparked mixed reactions and brought both pro and anti Israel sentiment to the fore.
There were those, like @ismpalestine, who thanked the Pixies for not supporting an apartheid state:

Pixies cancel Israel show. Thank @Pixies for rejecting apartheid! #flotilla #israel #pixies

Others, like @SMaher85, commended the Pixies for upholding justice and promoting peace:

Another victory for #BDS! #Pixies cancel #Israel concert! Thank you for standing with justice & peace: http://bit.ly/aXJvea #Palestine

From Israeli Pixie fans, there were strong, vitriolic reactions with some using the band’s own lyrics to make a point. @Dachniella asked :

where is your mind, pixies? why mix art and politics??? #pixiessuck

Many fans, like @OrTheDude, also accused the band of having a weak understanding of the Israel’s political situation:

The #Pixies are COWARDLY yielding to biased politics, shame on you for not getting to the bottom of things! #pixiessuck #israel #music

@photomiky added :

Pixies do-little to understand Israel's security needs. #pixiessuck

But it’s not just on Twitter that people have been reacting. The Pixie’s Facebook fan page was bombarded with fan’s comments about the cancellation. At the time of writing, there were 242 comments, most of them in response to the bands decision not to play in Tel Aviv. These comments give interesting insight into a conflict that is older than the Pixies and far darker than their lyrics could ever be.
Some like Riky Cohen, accuse the band of being anti-Semitic, terrorist collaborators:

Hypocrisy, hypocrisy and disgusting. Will you stop running in countries like America, England, and others who fought in Iraq? You are collaborators with an anti-Semitic terrorist

But there are also comments on the Facebook fan page, like those by like Pamela Hardyment, which applaud the Pixie’s decision:

LOVE YOU, THANKS FOR AVOIDING THE SCUM OF THE EARTH IN ISRAEHELL

Elton John and Rod Stewart are still scheduled to play in Israel this summer. There is, however, pressure on the artists to reconsider and cancel. On Twitter, @bataleh writes:

4gt itRT @DiamantChehadeh: EltonJohn,im sure Israel wl roll u out redcarpet covered in innocent blood.Do it Cancel your show #Flotilla

Another Twitter user, @DANALTWEETS, also advocates that artists not play in Israel :

snoop dogg,klaxons,gorillaz,santana, and elvis costello have all cancelled concerts in israel, finally, whose next? #bds #flotilla #freepali

Global: Reactions to Twitter’s sinking #flotilla hashtag

Nicole Hyman — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:11:47 +0000

The recent flotilla debacle may have started at sea but it was to the Twitosphere that many activists turned, filling it with condemnation of Israel. The power of Twitter as a mobilizing force and alternative platform for affecting change is not to be underestimated. From the Iranian election, to the more recent Thai protests, citizens and activists alike have come to rely on Twitter as a way of bypassing mainstream media and making themselves heard. But what would happen if Twitter started censoring, as many tweeting about the flotilla began to fear?

Panic and a re-tweeting furor began when people noticed that the #flotilla hashtag was not trending on Twitter despite countless Tweets and Re-tweets and it trending on Google. On Twitter, hashtags are used to as a way of identifying and grouping tweets, making it easier to follow a conversation. In this case, the #flotilla hashtag was used.

It didn’t take long for the twitosphere to react:

@lalajohnny

Find it very hard to believe that #Flotilla & #FreedomFlotilla wouldn't be in the top 10 Trends. Is Twitter playing censorship???

@overhere1

Good to see that #huddlestone is trending but #freedomflotilla is not. Censorship or return to proper English values? Or #cockup?

@melihaksan

Global censorship is enormous.. #flotilla

To try and avoid what was believed to be censorship, people were urged to use the #freedomflotilla hashtag :

@gkrrr

@RokOdyssey PS. #Twitter sucks esp. with its #censorship. But now we're trying to get the #freedomflotilla point across. #Gaza

@amirMusthafa

unbelievable #twitter has done it again #freedomflotilla #flotilla #censorship all the way

@adesri

@twitter please remove your censorship about flotilla, gaza & israil #freedomflotilla

The tweets kept coming and so did the questions about why certain hastags weren’t trending:

@qu1j0t3

RT @ ddowza Why Israil is trending & #flotilla is not - http://bit.ly/aMhkwU - Twitter blocking #flotilla #Censorship #freedomFlotilla

@keefieboy

@TurkeyPalestine Very odd: #flotilla trending 7, #freedomflotilla nada #censorship #gaza

Twitter’s response was that there was no censorship. They said a problem with their algorithm prevented the hashtag from trending. Twitter’s anti-spamming system flagged the hashtag as spam because the same hashtag had trended the week before.

Here’s an official tweet from Twitter's Sean Garrett , VP of communications:

We are investigating a technical issue that caused search errors for a short period of time this morning….

But some still remain unconvinced:

@simsimt

So a tweet by a Twitter official staff is all what it takes @Herdict to assume no censorship was applied to the #flotilla hashtag? #nonsense

Regardless of whether or not the hashtag was censored, the graver reality is that even on Twitter issues and voices can be sidelined.

Adrian, a blogger, touches on this:

It is frightening to think that anyone is purposefully blocking words from being discussed by a greater audience so lets hope this is all some sort of coincidence or error.

The Herdict blog points out that future technical glitches could prevent other issues from trending:

While it is a great relief to be reassured that, at least for now, Twitter seems to be an unbiased center for the information flow of Tweets, there are still questions about if this can happen again. Most people consider the word “flotilla” to be a fairly unused word, so the idea of it being hashtagged for two different trending topics within a short time frame was especially surprising to Twitter. It is easy to foresee this set of errors repeat itself in the future through an overlap of more common words in a hashtag.

Israel, Palestine: Free Virtual Computer Conquers Wall

Nicole Hyman — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:42:29 +0000

A new Israeli-Palestinian Internet start-up called G.ho.st is taking on Microsoft and Google in the competition to develop a “cloud computing” operating system that allows people to access all their files and software via the internet.

G.ho.st launched on July 13 and is offering users 15GB of free disk-space as well as various other applications to edit documents, presentations and spreadsheets. The system enables a user to manage email, photos, videos, bookmarks and the option via any computer or mobile device that has Internet access. The operating system is currently available in 20 languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. G.hos.t welcomes improvements to the translations as well as any new language contributions, making it accessible to as many people as possible.

Here's an explanatory video, explaining why the system was developed:

And it’s the operating system’s slogan, “No walls”, that has really created a stir and excitement. G.ho.st not only overcomes technological ‘walls' or barriers by making data something that is no longer bound by a device, but it also overcomes political walls of separation.

The virtual operating system is the result of a rare collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian developer teams on both sides of the infamous West Bank separation wall. G.ho.st was founded in 2006 by Zvi Schreiber, an Israeli businessman, and the chief engineer, Elias Khalil, is Palestinian.

Their teams have never visited each other's offices because often Palestinians cannot get the permits needed to enter Israel. And Israelis aren't allowed to travel to certain areas of the West Bank. Most communication between the teams takes place via video conferencing. As the G.ho.st website explains:

Ghosts go through walls and the very first wall that G.ho.st goes through is the 425 mile wall and fence that Israel is building in the West Bank between itself and the Palestinians and which physically divides the G.ho.st team into two. However the Internet and positive collaboration between human beings transcends all physical boundaries.

So far, most reactions to the operating system have been positive. Here are some of the comments appearing on Twitter:

sstrand12 :

Virtual filing system, developed by Israeli-Palestinian team. Really useful, no more emailing yourself files: http://g.ho.st/

jebbrilliant :

I think G.ho.st has huge potential for those that can't afford a computer but have access to one. Go check it out at G.ho.st

wllm:

Why can't we all just get along? Like these guys: http://bit.ly/MySDY #cloudcomputing #g.ho.st #palestine #israel #cloudheads

There also seems to be some interest in future use and development of the operating system:

jebbrilliant:

@Ew4n Mobile version is lacking but I foresee G.ho.st being useful for people w ultra basic handsets and access to a shared computer.

markherring:

Is anyone using g.ho.st with their students. Could solve file protection and storage issues at schools. No need for massive servers?

Regardless of how this operating system develops, or whether or not it is a success, G.ho.st is a nice indicator that collaboration across conflict lines is possible when people embrace a world with no walls.