Editor's Picks: Outstanding Middle East Websites

The Arab Information Project at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) offers a wealth of information on the effects of the Internet on society and politics in the Middle East. The site offers proceedings on workshops and conferences held by the Center and maintains a data bank featuring useful articles on information technology. Finally, interested viewers should take a look at the syllabus for Jon Anderson's course at CCAS, Information Technologies in the Arab World.

The Birzeit University Web Page, is an important site for news and information on Palestine. From the main page, one can explore many useful and informative sites. Among them are:

• On the Ground in Ramallah features pictures and accounts of the September, 1996 clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers as witnessed by Palestinians in Ramallah and nearby Birzeit. Created in the heat of the moment under great difficulty by people at Birzeit, this site provided a local, Palestinian perspective of the battles, that was largely absent in the mainstream coverage of the events.

• Academic Freedom First presents the cases of Birzeit students from the Gaza Strip who have been denied transit through Israel to the West Bank. Vivid personal accounts describe the myriad difficulties faced by these individuals because of the travel restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on movement between the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as within the West Bank itself.

• What is it like to live and work in the West Bank? How do Palestinians see the Oslo process unfolding? These and many other questions are dealt with in A Personal Diary by Nigel Parry. These illustrated essays provide an illuminating view of Palestinian life in the wake of "the handshake,"demonstrating that although Palestinians have made some progress in gaining independence from Israeli rule, many aspects of the occupation remain. His most recent entry, Comment: Israeli Closure of Ramallah for "Security Reasons" Clearly Untrue, shows that the use of "closure" is a political weapon Israel uses to pressure the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority, rather than a security measure.

Al-Mashriq provides a wealth of information on the Middle East with a strong emphasis on Lebanon. Vistors to the site can find useful resources from archeology and architecture through music and photography to theater, travel, and weather. The site also features The War of April 11-27, 1996. This page has numerous articles as well as personal accounts of Israel's two-week blitz against Lebanon.