Palestine Unbound

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 117-120
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Gaza Strip ◽  
The Right ◽  
The U.S

Palestinians dealt with a confluence of events this quarter (16 February–15 May 2018) that kept interrelated issues alive on social media platforms. Land Day and the seventieth year of the 1948 Nakba were marked by the Great March of Return in Gaza, launched on 30 March, and the symbolic opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on 14 May. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip staged weeks-long protests against the ten-year Israeli siege of the enclave and demanded the right of return for refugees. Others in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel took to the streets in solidarity and also to protest the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

Chronology

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Paul Karolyi
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Pull Out ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Right ◽  
The U.S

This is part 138 of a chronology begun by the Journal of Palestine Studies in Spring 1984, and covers events from 16 May to 15 August 2018 on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the diplomatic sphere, regionally and internationally. This quarter saw the start of the ongoing months-long Great March of Return, a protest demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes in Israel. These peaceful, large-scale protests along Gaza's border were met with stunning violence from Israeli forces. The bloodiest day, which fell on the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the U.S. embassy's move to Jerusalem, and the day before the seventieth anniversary of the Nakba, saw fifty-eight Palestinians dead at the hands of Israeli troops. The U.S. and Israel successfully blocked a formal investigation into these killings, in spite of multiple requests from U.N. members. As well, U.S. president Trump announced his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, after which tension and military attacks and counterattacks between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria mounted.

scholarly journals Primary and Secondary Students’ Usage of Digital Platforms for Mathematics Learning during the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Case of the Gaza Strip

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
José M. Marbán ◽  
Eqbal Radwan ◽  
Afnan Radwan ◽  
Walaa Radwan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Gaza Strip

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital learning has reshaped mathematics education in different ways. In particular, different social media platforms have acquired an unforeseen prominence as a way to enhance mathematics learning and to model somehow the face-to-face classroom interactions abruptly interrupted. How primary and secondary students have reacted or responded to these changes in the initial learning conditions is the main aim of this study. With this purpose in mind data was collected from 3179 students from the Gaza Strip by means of a validated rating scale and then a cluster analysis approach was applied that revealed the existence of three clusters. K-means cluster analysis was applied to analyze data as an exploratory approach to identify structures within the data. Also, chi-square was applied to identify differences between the clusters with regard to demographic characteristics. Regarding the grouping of participants in clusters the analysis performed lead to the identification of three clusters: Cluster 1, 2 and 3 had 2001, 824 and 354 cases, respectively. These clusters were grouped depending on employ social media platforms used by the students to reinforcement their mathematics learning. Participants in Cluster 3 exhibited the highest proficiency in the usage of social media for mathematics learning as compared to those in Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. This means that students in cluster 1 are more likely to exhibit negative attitudes and low levels in the skills related to using digital technology and the employment of social media in mathematics learning. The results showed that there were no significant differences between cluster-groups with regard to gender, age, and type of school. In contrast, significant differences were found among the three clusters with regards to the educational level of parents and the economic status of the family. However, the overall results show that digital learning is considered a positive response to the school closure in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Urban Development Strategies of City Centers: The Case of Rafah City, Palestinian Territories

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Omar S. Asfour ◽  
Samar Abu Ghali
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
City Center ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
The Gaza Strip ◽  
The City ◽  
Commercial Center

City centers worldwide are perceived as essential parts of the city, where city memories are preserved and its identity is expressed. They are planned to satisfy the functional requirements and pleasurable qualities of the city. Under the accelerating urbanization of the modern city, several challenges face these centers including demographic, economic, and environmental challenges. This requires a continuous and incremental urban development process based on clear strategy and action plans. Thus, this study focuses on urban development strategies of city centers, with a focus on Rafah city located in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories. The geographic location of this city near the Palestinian-Egyptian borders makes it a promising commercial city at local and regional levels. Thus, the current situation of Rafah city center has been analyzed, and several development strategies have been proposed. This has been done through a field survey based on observation and a questionnaire directed to city center users. It has been found that there is a great potential of Rafah city center to be developed as a commercial center. In this regard, several strategies and required actions have been proposed in the fields of transportation, environmental quality, shopping activities, investment opportunities, and visual perception.

Chinese Social Media Platforms and Microblogging in the Context of Public Diplomacy

Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
E.S. Nadezhkina
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Interactive Communication ◽  
Network Interaction ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Chinese Social Media

The term “digital public diplomacy” that appeared in the 21st century owes much to the emergence and development of the concept of Web 2.0 (interactive communication on the Internet). The principle of network interaction, in which the system becomes better with an increase in the number of users and the creation of user-generated content, made it possible to create social media platforms where news and entertainment content is created and moderated by the user. Such platforms have become an expression of the opinions of various groups of people in many countries of the world, including China. The Chinese segment of the Internet is “closed”, and many popular Western services are blocked in it. Studying the structure of Chinese social media platforms and microblogging, as well as analyzing targeted content is necessary to understand China’s public opinion, choose the right message channels and receive feedback for promoting the country’s public diplomacy. This paper reveals the main Chinese social media platforms and microblogging and provides the assessment of their popularity, as well as possibility of analyzing China’s public opinion based on “listening” to social media platforms and microblogging.

Governing Fake News: The Regulation of Social Media and the Right to Freedom of Expression in the Era of Emergency

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Donato VESE
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Media Censorship

Governments around the world are strictly regulating information on social media in the interests of addressing fake news. There is, however, a risk that the uncontrolled spread of information could increase the adverse effects of the COVID-19 health emergency through the influence of false and misleading news. Yet governments may well use health emergency regulation as a pretext for implementing draconian restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, as well as increasing social media censorship (ie chilling effects). This article seeks to challenge the stringent legislative and administrative measures governments have recently put in place in order to analyse their negative implications for the right to freedom of expression and to suggest different regulatory approaches in the context of public law. These controversial government policies are discussed in order to clarify why freedom of expression cannot be allowed to be jeopardised in the process of trying to manage fake news. Firstly, an analysis of the legal definition of fake news in academia is presented in order to establish the essential characteristics of the phenomenon (Section II). Secondly, the legislative and administrative measures implemented by governments at both international (Section III) and European Union (EU) levels (Section IV) are assessed, showing how they may undermine a core human right by curtailing freedom of expression. Then, starting from the premise of social media as a “watchdog” of democracy and moving on to the contention that fake news is a phenomenon of “mature” democracy, the article argues that public law already protects freedom of expression and ensures its effectiveness at the international and EU levels through some fundamental rules (Section V). There follows a discussion of the key regulatory approaches, and, as alternatives to government intervention, self-regulation and especially empowering users are proposed as strategies to effectively manage fake news by mitigating the risks of undue interference by regulators in the right to freedom of expression (Section VI). The article concludes by offering some remarks on the proposed solution and in particular by recommending the implementation of reliability ratings on social media platforms (Section VII).

scholarly journals Assessment of Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Smoking Cessation Management in the Gaza Strip

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Smoking Habit ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
The Gaza Strip ◽  
The Impact

Background: Despite its negative effects, approximately 23% of Palestinians (≥ 18 years) smoke cigarettes. Studies have shown physicians to be an important channel for smoking cessation intervention. This investigation examines physicians’ smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the Gaza strip (Palestinian Territories). Methods and Findings: A convenience sample of 154 physicians in medical and surgical units took part in this investigation (87.7% response rate). The data show that 37.8% of physicians in Gaza smoke, and most of them about 72% smoke in the hospital’s public spaces, thereby implicitly giving public approval for smoking. While 82.4% reported that they advise patients who smoke to stop, the majority (59%) also believe that their own smoking habits negatively influence the impact of that advice. Unfortunately, our survey showed that physicians’ knowledge levels towards smoking addiction and management were lower than expected (e.g. only 34% knew that nicotine dependence is a psychiatric disorder that necessitates treatment). The physicians in this study believed that the primary barriers to failure of their patients’ smoking cessation were the perceived lack of will (81.3%), and the strength of patients’ addiction (67.9%). Moreover, (61%) of physicians did not spend enough time to convince their patients to quit smoking. Conclusion: Smoking is common among Gaza-strip physicians, and unfortunately, most of them smoke in the hospital’s public spaces. Many obstacles face the smoking cessation program that some physicians linked it to patients, and others linked it to the health-care system. Furthermore, smokers in Gaza receive poor care regarding assessment, referral, and management of their smoking habit.

Multidimensional Mappings of Political Accounts for Malicious Political Socialbot Identification

2019 ◽  
pp. 263-348
Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Warfare ◽  
Russian Government ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Content Sharing ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Strategic Messaging ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
The U.S

Malicious political socialbots used to sway public opinion regarding the U.S. government and its functions have been identified as part of a larger information warfare effort by the Russian government. This work asks what is knowable from a web-based sleuthing approach regarding the following four factors: 1) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their ego neighborhoods at 1, 1.5, and 2 degrees; 2) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on the claimed and linked geographical locations of their accounts, their ego neighborhoods, and their #hashtag networks; 3) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their strategic messaging (content, sentiment, and language structures) on respective social media platforms; and 4) the ability to identify and describe “maliciousness” in malicious political socialbot accounts based on observable behaviors on that account on three social media platform types: (a) microblogging, (b) social networking, and (c) crowd-sourced encyclopedia content sharing.

Crisis Communication in the Age of Social Media and the Case of Dairy Khoury

2021 ◽  
pp. 2181-2196
Author(s):  
Nisrine Zammar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Organizational Reputation ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Right

The use of social media platforms has become an essential part of today's protocol of reacting to any sudden crisis, due to their interactive nature which allows them to reach vast and heterogeneous audiences. This makes them the right tool that enables the organizations to spread their messages efficiently. Any failure in responding adequately on social media level, would allow rumors and negative contents to circulate uncontrollably, affecting the organizational reputation and recovery. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to provide a clear understanding of the crisis communication strategy adopted by Dairy Khoury, a Lebanese firm, on social media, at a time when the new power of social media had not yet been fully measured and estimated. The author will highlight the necessity of a preset crisis communication strategy and the use of social media platforms while dealing with crisis.

The Fifth Troll Prerequisite

Cyberwar ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 141-154
Author(s):  
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Organic Content ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Voter Models ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Chapter 8 focuses on the fifth troll prerequisite which needed to be met if hacked and Russian-generated content were to influence the U.S. election: was it targeted to reach the desired constituencies? The chapter contends that, despite some arguments against the impact of the Russian troll messaging, the trolls targeted audiences needed to influence the election in both battleground and nonbattleground states, through the use of organic content and paid advertisements. The trolls had access to multiple sources of information about how to reach voters susceptible to mobilizing or demobilizing appeals, including publicly accessible analyses of the candidates’ objectives and tactics, stolen voter models hacked from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and toolkits offered by social media platforms to help identify desired audience members.

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