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Why an Israeli general is Facebook chatting with Palestinians

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Gen. Yoav Mordechai conducted a first-of-its-kind live chat session on Facebook with Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
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“Shalom, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve decided that we can dialogue directly, and I’m glad I was given an opportunity to address you personally.” This was the opening line of Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), in his first live video chat with Palestinians on the Facebook page Al-Monsiq (Arabic for “The Coordinator”). The Facebook page was set up in March 2015 to improve communications between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on issues under COGAT’s purview, both relating to individual matters and to those of the Palestinian public in general. Mordechai is involved with the daily routine of more than 2.5 million Palestinians in the [Hamas-controlled] Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In mid-November, Al-Monsiq’s 80,000 Palestinian followers were asked to send in questions for Mordechai. Surprisingly, all those who did, including residents of the Gaza Strip who are banned by Hamas from direct contact with Israelis, identified themselves by name in seeking solutions to their many problems. Gaza has been under siege since 2007, and the West Bank is experiencing a severe economic downturn. So as not to anger the Palestinian authorities tasked with conveying residents’ appeals to Israel, Mordechai explained that relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) are excellent, and occasionally even heaped praise on the PA and its coordination with Israel.

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