Palestinians Turn to Facebook In Fight Against Occupation

Despite a spike in social-media usage, Palestinian activists still face challenges translating online activism into mass mobilization, writes Linah Alsaafin.
A Palestinian protester holds a placard during a demonstration in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi, outside Kaplan hospital in Rehovot near Tel Aviv April 22, 2013. Some 20 protesters demonstrated on Monday outside the hospital treating al-Issawi as Palestinian and Israeli officials continue to seek a compromise to end his hunger strike whose on-off fast has lasted more than 250 days and stoked weeks of street protests. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)
A Palestinian protester holds a placard during a demonstration in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi, outside Kaplan hospital in Rehovot near Tel Aviv April 22, 2013. - REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Linah Alsaafin
@@LinahAlsaafin

A recent report on social media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip found that 40% of the Palestinian population there are active on social-media sites, most notably Facebook. This ranks the two territories as the highest in the Middle East region.

Hanin Taha, a social-media specialist who works with the Spark Media company, said that the annual rate of increase for Twitter users in Palestine in 2012-2013 is the highest of the Arab countries, at an astonishing 232%.

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