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SITES IN PALESTINE

• Academic Freedom First
• Addameer
• Al Haq
• Alternative Information Center (AIC)
• Association of 40
• BADIL
• B'Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
• Free Ahmad Qatamesh!
• Human Rights Action Project (HRAP), Birzeit University
• LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment
• Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
• Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG)
• Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights (PICCR)
• Society of St Yves
• Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC)

RECOMMENDED SITES OUTSIDE PALESTINE

• Freedom and Justice for Samar and Jawad
• Hanthala

WEBSITES THAT ONCE WERE BUT ARE NO LONGER

• Democracy and Workers' Rights Center
• The Mandela Institute

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Academic Freedom First: http://www.birzeit.edu/aff/ A groovy purple and black Depeche-Mode style kicks in this website for the Academic Freedom First Campaign. Based at Birzeit University, the AFF aims to win Gaza students the right to freedom of movement and education. Heaps of good information, personal testimonies, and ways you can get involved. If you want a site to please your eyes and stir your conscience - this is a good place to start. Review last updated: 15 September 1998. Top of page.


Addameer: http://www.addameer.org - An attractively designed site with lots of information about Palestinian prisoners. This is the place to go for statistics about prisoners and their living conditions. It has campaign ideas and Arabic text available as well. They registered their own domain name in November 1998 and have really taken up the use of the web in the right way. Their webmaster tells me their hits are impressive and they are even listed under Yahoo's regional directory for Israel under human rights!Going from strength to strength.Review added: 15 September 1998. Review last updated: 2 December 1998. Top of page.


Al Haq: http://www.alhaq.org/ - Al Haq was founded in 1979 and is one of the oldest human rights organizations in Palestine. Their website was recently launched and contains press releases, summaries of publications a useful list of links and information about their work. Al Haq also publishes a high-quality quarterly newsletter but unfortunately the last edition on the web dates from September 1998.Added to Complete Guide: 5 May 1999. Top of page.


A.I.C. - The Alternative Information Center: http://aic.netgate.net - AIC is a joint Israeli-Palestinian human rights group based in Jerusalem. The AIC site has been redesigned and some more content added. Their Other Front publication has an attractive newspaper-style layout and there is also some good information on settlements to be found here. It’s a pity though they don’t include articles from their magazine News from Within - a good publication which should be on the web. Review last updated: 15 September 1998. Top of page.


Association of 40: http://www.assoc40.org A human rights organization active around the unrecognized Arab villages inside the 1948 borders. These villages lack basic services and infrastructure and are not recognized by the state of Israel despite the fact they are populated by thousands of Palestinians. This website is full of information and comes in three languages, Arabic, English and Hebrew. It’s attractive, the content is well-written and informative, and it has a sense of humour- see for example the comment "A lot of text, huh? well, we have a lot of problems." Nice.Review last updated: 15 September 1998 Top of page.


BADIL: http://www.badil.org/ - Badil is an NGO based in Bethlehem which does some excellent work on Jerusalem, refugees and residency rights. This really is a great website - a wealth of resources, attractively designed, regularly updated. They are also building an on-line Oral History section, which unlike other sites that promise the same, actually contains content. Here’s a tip for organizations which have websites - content wins out in the end. This site shows why.Review last updated: 15 September 1998 Top of page.


B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: http://www.btselem.org - B'Tselem may not at first glance seem to qualify for an inclusion in the "Complete Guide to Palestine's Websites". However, the organisation employs Palestinian field workers and works almost exclusively on human rights violations resulting from the military occupation. The site contains lists of reports, studies, case studies, press releases, and other publications with a form to request them to send these publications to you through the mail. They used to offer downloadable reports online but for reasons unknown decided to stop that. It's a pity as that's what websites are for! Added to Complete Guide: 12 November 1996 / Review last updated: 2 September 1999. Top of page.


Free Ahmad Qatamesh!: http://www.freeqatamesh.org/ - The first Palestinian political prisoner to have his own homepage, Ahmad Qatamesh has been in prison without trial or charge for five years. Ahmad is a writer and you will find "Forever Human", an anthological collection of Ahmad’s prison writings on a variety of topics, including conversations with his interrogators, his experiences during torture, his thoughts on education, ethics, women, and sexual love, as well as children's stories, and letters to his daughter Haneen. All this in addition to all of the usual information one would expect to find on a website like this. Attractively designed, this is the Complete Guide's March 1998 website of the month. Added to Complete Guide: 7 March 1998. Top of page.


Human Rights Action Project, Birzeit University: http://www.birzeit.edu/hrap - Birzeit's Human Rights Action Project, founded in 1977, has followed the case of every student, faculty and staff member detained by the Israeli military authorities, as well as "cases of restriction orders, house raids, deportation, and denial of freedom of movement and travel as it relates to university and academic activities". The website offers a link to the university's Human Rights and Press Release Archives, depositories of publications and press releases by the project and Birzeit's Public Relations Office, concerned with human rights issues. Monthly stats of students in Palestinian Authority and Israeli prisons are available. An excellent feature website on the problems of Gazan students studying in the West Bank, Academic Freedom First, can also be found here, offering a photo gallery, background information and an activists section. Review last updated: 18 December 1997. Top of page.


LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment: http://www.lawsociety.org/ - LAW, a Palestinian Human Rights organization based in Jerusalem, was founded in 1990 by a group of Palestinian lawyers to promote human rights and further the principles of the rule of law, and to defend Palestinian rights in accordance with international human rights law and United Nations declarations. Their site is absolutely packed full of information, starting with their campaign to enforce the Geneva Convention : "The campaign is a six-week, six-part flyer series outlining ... Israeli violations [of the Geneva Convention]" and all the flyers have been published online. The latest press releases and reports are also available online, making this a site one could spend hours at without getting bored at all. Added to Complete Guide: 13 August 1997 Review last updated: 2 September 1999. Top of page.


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: http://www.pchrgaza.com/ - A high quality website with lots of information about this human rights organization based in Gaza. Detailed reports on the economic situation, effects of the Israeli closure policy as well as the work of the Centre make this a site worth visiting.Added to Complete Guide: 21 June 1999. Top of page.


Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group: http://www.phrmg.org - The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group was founded in late 1996 and now have their own domain name and totally redesigned site. Good information and copies of their publication, the Palestinian Human Rights Monitor are available online. The site is regularly updated. Certainly one of the few NGOs in Palestine that use the WWW effectively.Added to Complete Guide: 7 May 1997. Review last updated: 2 September 1999 Top of page.


Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights (PICCR): http://www.piccr.org - The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) was established in 1994, following a decree by Yasser Arafat, and was charged with monitoring and working toward the integration of human rights into Palestinian legislation and institutions. The website was launched with assistance from the US-based Muslim Student Association in November 1997, but recently changed to a new URL and their own domain name. On their site you will find their annual report in both English and Arabic and a list of their publications which are unfortunately not available for download. Added to Complete Guide: 7 January 1998. Review Updated 13 September 1999 Top of page.


Society of St Yves: http://www.saint-yves.org - A Catholic human rights organization based in Jerusalem that provides legal services. According to their website " We have learnt that there is only one correct response to another person's suffering, and that is that one must actually get up and go over to the person suffering to help him. Help offered and given is a matter of a fundamental option in one's life: one must make a decision to act: it is an act of the will. Feeling sorry for someone is not enough. Action is what counts." Plenty of pictures and some interesting articles available on the site. Added to Complete Guide: 20 June 1999. Top of page.


Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC): http://www.pal-watc.org - WATC is essentially a human rights coalition, working together "for the realisation of the abolishment of all forms of discrimination against women in the preparation for the build up of a civic democratic society characterized by quality and social justice." The website was recently redesigned and the result is an attractive and useful site. Plenty of statistics on things such as gender and human development indicators, women and child indicators, fertility rates, labour force participation and wage differentials. Also available are several publications for download, including their Voice of Women, a biweekly newspaper supplement. An Arabic version of the site is also available.Added to Complete Guide: 5 February 1997. Review last updated: 13 September 1999. Top of page.

RECOMMENDED SITES OUTSIDE PALESTINE

Freedom and Justice for Samar and Jawad: http://freesaj.org.uk - Samar and Jawad are two Palestinians wrongly convicted for conspiracy in relation to bombing the Israeli embassy and Balfour House in London. The two have been sentenced to twenty years in prison after which they face deportation. This website aims to raise awareness about their case and campaign for their freedom. An attractive website which makes all the right points. Visit now and show your support!Added to Complete Guide: 3 March 1999. Top of page.


Hanthala: http://hanthala.virtualave.net - Hanthala is an important symbol of the Palestinian struggle. A small boy with his arms crossed who always has his back to us, Hanthala is a character which appears in the drawings of the Palestinian artist Naji Ali who was assassinated in London in 1987. This website is a network of Palestinians across the world focusing on human rights violations and educating the world about Palestine. This is an attractive site with archives of the Hanthala mailing list, news, Palestinian poetry and information about Jerusalem.Added to Complete Guide: 13 May 1999. Top of page.

WEBSITES THAT ONCE WERE BUT ARE NO LONGER

Democracy and Workers' Rights Center: http://www.dwrc.org/ - This site never really got off the ground which is a pity as they do some good work. Now the link leads to Tucows.Added to Complete Guide: 19 December 1997. Review updated 2 September 1999 Top of page.


The Mandela Institute: http://www.mandela.org - The Mandela Institute, formerly the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners, has adjusted its mission since the coming of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to include human rights training for PA security personnel and rehabilitation for the prisoners released as a result of the Oslo Accords. The website was always more of a virtual brochure for the organization and lacked real content. Now I get a "can't locate server" message so I presume they've disappeared off the web. Hopefully they'll be back soon.Added to Complete Guide: 19 December 1997. Review updated 2 September 1999 Top of page.