The second is a network of formal and informal institutions used by the Israeli government to target pro-Palestinian expression across the globe. The first is the expansive police and surveillance apparatus of the State of Israel, which is used to track, intimidate, and imprison Palestinians in the occupied territories for their online speech. This is due to a confluence of three forces. It is also under threat of being extinguished. This second, digital Palestine represents a fulfilment of the internet’s optimistic and largely forgotten promise to give voice to the voiceless and illuminate the darkest corners of the world.
In doing so, Palestinians can call themselves citizens of a sovereign State of Palestine: one recognized by 138 countries and admitted in 2012 as a non-member observer state to the United Nations. They can share their stories with observers and sympathizers around the world. Palestinians can converse with family from whom they are separated by barbed wire and machine gun emplacements. In both cases, Palestinians are ultimately answerable to Israeli military courts, which deny defendants access to legal counsel during interrogation and have a conviction rate of nearly 100 percent.īut on the internet, the checkpoints disappear. They are subject either to the rule of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, or the Palestinian Authority (PA), a government that has ruled-unelected-for 12 years and maintains its hold on power by intimidating democratic activists.
In the physical world, Palestinians are captives, crammed into Gaza or West Bank enclaves and blockaded by Israeli military checkpoints. The 4.8 million residents of the occupied Palestinian territories live in two simultaneous and vastly different realities.
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