In the area of information technology, the Palestinians have gone through a long, cold winter to get to the point they are at today. Following the 1967 occupation, the Palestinians discovered for themselves that such circumstances herald the arrival of controls which, in the Israeli case, sometimes stretched to Kafkaesque proportions.

Due to the conflict between Israel and the Arab World, telephone lines between the two were unavailable for around 23 years, making networking particularly difficult for the Palestinians. Israeli telephone company Bezek, never quick to service the Occu pied Territories, usually kept Palestinians waiting for 7 years for an phone. Lines also served as sources of intelligence information for the military authorities. One story tells how Israeli soldiers were looking for a Palestinian activist for 3 days. W hen they found him, they asked "Where have you been?" He looked puzzled. "I've been staying with my brother for three days," he replied and then smiled, "Look! I have been asking for a telephone for 8 years and you wouldn't give it to me. If you give me o ne, you will always know where I am." The telephone arrived in under a fortnight.

Israeli Military Order 1279 of June 1989 stated that it was an offence for Palestinians to use telephone lines for sending faxes, electronic mail or any other electronic transmissions. During the Intifada, this came at a time when contact with the worl d was a necessity. With normal mail regularly going missing, or arriving opened and read, this represented yet another straw to torment the already-crippled camel.

In the wake of the peace talks, Palestinians find themselves with international phone access although via the Israeli telecommunications system, computers with modems and the necessary qualities of imagination and enthusiasm. Despite the continuation of Israeli control of the Palestinians' telecommunications infrastructure, there is a least limited access available. At Birzeit, the oldest Palestinian unversity, we have watched the development of the Internet with anticip ation. Our university was the first to install an IBM Windows-based LAN 3 years ago, although our Internet adventures began with a simple e-mail capacity several years previously. Three years ago, we saw the introduction of Pegasus software giving our cam puses e-mail access to the world.

This would not be news in most other countries but here the effects have been dramatic. Many academics, for years denied travel permission from Israel to attend conferences abroad, have found academic freedom in cyberspace. Mass e-mailing capacities of Pegasus are utilised by our Human Rights Action Project (hrap@admin.birzeit.edu) to send out Amnesty-style alerts around the world when a student or faculty member is being tortured. Unfortunately, one of the realitie s of "peace" has been the continued arrest of our students, 190 in 1994 alone, the second-highest figure since records began ten years ago but nothing compared with the 280 arrested in one day, on 28 March 1996. We have discovered that e-mail has the pote ntial to literally save lives.

Birzeit also began investigating the World Wide Web and our home page (http://www.birzeit.edu) is now available. From a university in such an unusual situation, that has played a central role in Palestinian life, it promises t o be a rich information source. Few other organisations here have ventured onto the WWW yet but many are beginning now, promising a bountiful future harvest.

Parallel to these changes, a Palestinian network called Baraka (from the Arabic for 'blessing') was established to service the extensive demand from NGOs and individuals. Baraka also provides access to newsgroups relevant to the region (details from support@baraka.org). In mid-1996, Baraka launched its website. Other organisations have set up similar services. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) alsharif@papp.undp.org provides the Internet and e-mail connection for the Palestinian universities and two private companies, Planet (http://www.planet.edu) and PalNet (http://www.palnet.com), now offer Web access in addition to their e-mail service.

Israelis, unwilling to travel to the Occupied Territories, have found opportunities to speak with Palestinians on joint dialogue groups such as Salaam v Shalom (the Arabic and Hebrew words for 'peace'). Although unpleasant disagreements are of ten all that bubble in the ether, the ones that have braved the flaming believe that there is value in getting to know their future neighbours (potential lurkers to this group can send a message "subscribe salaam-v-shalom FirstName LastName" to listserv@csf.colorado.edu). Beware, it can get nasty out there in cyberspace!

The lesson that emerges from this history is that technology is reaching a point where the kinds of restrictions described in the earlier part of this article will no longer be possible. Take away our right to use the Israeli telephone system or e-mail ? Fine. With one laptop computer and a mobile phone purchased in neighbouring Jordan, we could run an university e-mail system and international Web site from a desert if needed.

For development agencies working in other conflict areas, my suggestion is to provide local institutions with the means to self-empowerment by giving them the simple technology needed to join the global network of information. Thus, borders dissolve, a s many restrictions on information are rendered impotent and the world and indigenous communities have direct access rather than via foreign intermediaries. Even the most dictatorial governments, that have for years encouraged R&D into computer technology for military or commercial reasons, now must face the fact of their unwitting handover of one of the foundations of democracy to their people - one that is as irretractable as it is revolutionary.