Palestinian Mothers
By Mary Rizzo • Aug 3rd, 2009 at 20:50 • Category: Newswire, Palestine, Website of the Week
Our journey visiting other sites can only start with one that is truly innovative and quite unlike any other site on the web. It is a site that I myself come back to when other tasks let up a bit (would visit more frequently, but it does get addictive when I start talking to friends there and then it becomes hard to break away, the internet equivalent to a real trip back home), because it is a community to recharge batteries with other people who are so interesting and talented, that it is an honour to become their friends, and it is a place to make acquaintance with others who are sincerely dedicated to the cause. http://palestinian.ning.com is the link for Palestinian Mothers, a network with a large number of active members where discussion, education and friendship are three of the key words. It is not a traditional information site, with all the content inserted by an editorial group or a webmaster, but its content is created by the members themselves, each able to make their own blog (the content there can run into hundreds of pages each person) and add their own and others' articles, videos, pictures and songs. This way, one gets to know the other people on a more personal level, which in networking for political causes is not limited to merely discussion, but to strategy and action planning, and having this possibility can save a lot of misery and can speed up a sense of trust and comraderie. It is a true space for networking among supporters of the Palestinian cause, because of the option of communicating either publicly or privately between members. It is the first Ning I ever encountered, and the measuring stick by which all other sites of this type are judged. I advise anyone who would like to experience a deeper involvement in activism to first take a look around and then consider joining and becoming part of the community. Despite the name, approximately half the members are male and there are many internationals as well.
I have asked a few questions to the founder and moderator of the site, Iqbal Tamimi:
What is the focus of your website?
Human Rights of Palestinians especially from a point of view of motherhood and with lots of emphasis on media and media manipulations and the struggle of journalists working in Palestine.What kind of readership do you have in mind when assembling the material? Include information about the frequency of updating, about the sources you use, about the editorial or contributor staff if any.
I write having in mind every individual who can read or have access to my network, all backgrounds of all faiths and political affiliations. I am trying to open a dialogue with the human regardless of his age group or spirituality.
Updating is around the clock because the readers and the members are in different time zones, there are always someone adding something or commenting.
The sources are different independent organisations, articles in leading newspapers, bloggers' contributions, You Tube videotapes, journalists around the world especially from Palestine….
I do run the network alone, but the contributions of all the members made it such a success.
What are the aspects of your site that are the most representative as well as the strong points of your site?
Focussing on what we have in common not what we differ about, Mothers and their continuous struggle to keep their children safe regardless of their age, whether they are babies or grown up politicians.
Refusing to make differences in faith points of view interfere in our quest to highlight the truth.
The fact that struggle and war and oppression is demolition of civilization and works of art and a wealth of literature, consuming the efforts and the resources of many involved.
Do you encourage discussion on your site in the form of comments and if so, what can you say about the commenting on your site?
Yes, we have healthy debates almost totally free non-censored, but I had to eliminate a few members when they started to abuse the website for things other than what it was established for.
What are some of the posts that are the most important/memorable to you?
Many, especially the ones demanding the release of almost 11.000 Palestinian prisoners, especially women and children. My best are not published, it's the interaction and exchange of private emails between me and some women members who happen to be Israeli women living in my home country.If you could describe your site in one or two sentences, how would you do that?
A virtual family home for all the exiled around the world.Has your site ever had difficulties or been involved in any controversies that you would care to mention?
When I started my network a few Google ads about dating appeared on my main page because the service was then free. It took lots of exchanging emails and phone calls with the help of my colleague Mr. Mike Jempson, Director of the journalism ethics charity MediaWise in UK and one of the main pillars of the Exiled Journalist Network project, to make the hosting company understand how inappropriate that was, and requesting them to remove those automated ads that appeared because we were focussing on women's rights and women's issues under occupation. Funnily enough it seems that the expression of women is somehow connected on the internet with dating and adult subjects. The Google ads funnily enough made my website become filtered in Arab countries as something that was unappropriate. I had to write to many authorities to resolve this dispute.
Is there anything you might like to add to the readers of Palestine Think Tank?
Yes, if I was paid for the amount of effort I sacrifice for this project I would have become a wealthy woman, many people like myself are totally committed to human rights missions all over the world, that they gave up totally on anything else in their lives to help oppressed people. I hope we have been successful in our efforts, or at least that we have been able to spare one life. Now I have almost 700 members in my online family, none of them like the other, but all of them carry the same heart. My experience and other experiences like Palestine Think Tank are a labour of love carried by women and for women and their children. I work closely with the editor of Palestine Think Tank, my dearest friend Mary Rizzo, day and night, we have overcome many obstacles together, and I found that a Muslim Exiled Palestinian journalist and a Grandmother is connected with a half Jewish half Italian art maniac woman with the same umbilical cord feeding on the same ethical components. I hope one day we will be able to meet in person before mother earth hugs one of us for good.
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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