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Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

theguardian.com

31–40 of 68 posts

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#31
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that the Internet connection to Gaza goes through Israel? I would have assumed that it's via Egypt instead, as Gaza has a land border there as well.

Yes, I'm sure. I would assume the connection is monitored, but it is not censored. (There is censoring done internally though.) Egypt is not as technological as Israel, plus the border with Gaza is very very far from anything much in Egypt. It would take a lot of effort to bring Internet there. Israel also provides phone service to Gaza, both via lines to local towers and via towers located in Israel. People assume E…

Thanks for the reply, interesting information!

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#32
post #28

As an Israeli, I'm delighted to see Gaza citizens building businesses, gaining skills, and making money. This is in the mutual interest of Palestinians and Israelis alike. I wish that it were somehow possible for Israelis to help the Gazans in their attempts to build such businesses, but realize that this is (for now) sadly unrealistic. For now, I wish them great success, and am excited to see them start the process…

You can donate directly to the startup incubator, for the next 20 hours: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#33
Whoa! I work for Mercy Corps, the agency funding this. It is really awesome to see something from work here. I'm obviously biased but I think it is a great program that is really helping the people of Gaza. Additionally the focus on women and helping them enter the work force is really great.

As jacalata said they are doing a fundraiser that ends in about 20 hours if you want to help out:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#34

Whoa! I work for Mercy Corps, the agency funding this. It is really awesome to see something from work here. I'm obviously biased but I think it is a great program that is really helping the people of Gaza. Additionally the focus on women and helping them enter the work force is really great. As jacalata said they are doing a fundraiser that ends in about 20 hours if you want to help out: https://www.indiegogo.com/pr…

Well, with 200 million euro annually pumped there by Sweden alone I'd be surprised if we didn't see stuff like this.

While now we can't feed Syrian refugees because the UN is out of money. Not to mention the genocide on Christian Arabs, or kidnappings for sex-slavery of over 7000 female Yezidis by Arabic and Somalian islamists largely from Europe.

But hey... lets riot and collect money for Gaza.

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#35
post #28

As an Israeli, I'm delighted to see Gaza citizens building businesses, gaining skills, and making money. This is in the mutual interest of Palestinians and Israelis alike. I wish that it were somehow possible for Israelis to help the Gazans in their attempts to build such businesses, but realize that this is (for now) sadly unrealistic. For now, I wish them great success, and am excited to see them start the process…

It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#36
post #28

As an Israeli, I'm delighted to see Gaza citizens building businesses, gaining skills, and making money. This is in the mutual interest of Palestinians and Israelis alike. I wish that it were somehow possible for Israelis to help the Gazans in their attempts to build such businesses, but realize that this is (for now) sadly unrealistic. For now, I wish them great success, and am excited to see them start the process…

It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.

You're mixing up Gaza and the West Bank.

What Israel (and Egypt) are doing is - 1) blockading Gaza, 2) entering armed conflicts with the Hamas with high human casualties and vast damage to infrastructure

Israel is not occupying Gaza. All settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza

The Israeli military absolutely does not enter Gaza frivolously as it does in the West Bank, and Hamas law is in full effect there, not Israeli martial law.

Supporting the project on Indiegogo is probably the best thing to do, as an Israeli: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#37
post #22

Right, I'm going to post this at the top level in the hopes that the extremely intelligent people of HN see it and remember why we're all here. As I said below: This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's remove…

Why are talking about politics so bad? If you dont talk about politics and if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip then how can you understand why running a startup incubator there is such a feat?

Many of the extremely intelligent people on HN are here because they want to change the world in some way. Hopefully for the better. Politics is one of the most powerful tools for improving the world. So not talking about politics makes no sense.

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#38
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.

You're mixing up Gaza and the West Bank. What Israel (and Egypt) are doing is - 1) blockading Gaza, 2) entering armed conflicts with the Hamas with high human casualties and vast damage to infrastructure Israel is not occupying Gaza. All settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza The Israeli military absolutely does not enter Gaza frivolously as…

I don't think the situations in Gaza and the West Bank can be treated as individual and isolated, though. Israeli oppression and annexation (confiscation) of West Bank territory breeds resentment and hatred among all Palestineans, though, and with good reason. I have never seen a good argument for why this policy should be in place. If you forcibly take away people's property and livelihood, of course they will want to defend themselves. Pulling out of Gaza was probably a good move on Israel's side, although it's incredibly sad that this opportunity has not even after a decade resulted in a higher standard of living for the people of Gaza.

Hamas, on the other hand, needs to act less like a terrorist organization and more like a mature government. I am certain that this last bit will not happen, but at least there are more sound arguments for why Hamas policy is foolish if Israel's peace-time policies are solid from a human rights perspective. Self-defense against terrorism and guerillia tactics is predictably destructive to the civilian population, so I'd rather not get into that bag of snakes. The only consolation is that international pressure holds the Israeli military to a relatively high moral standard; I shudder to think what would have happened under the military doctrines of the 1900s and before.

Finally, very happy to see that there is digital commerce going on in Gaza. Economic development is key to ensuring better lives and hopefully resolving this terrible conflict. So if the surveillance opportunity means that Gaza/West Bank internet traffic is relatively unhindered, that provides one sound channel through which commerce is possible (in spite of the perverted background of control and surveillance).

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.

You're mixing up Gaza and the West Bank. What Israel (and Egypt) are doing is - 1) blockading Gaza, 2) entering armed conflicts with the Hamas with high human casualties and vast damage to infrastructure Israel is not occupying Gaza. All settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza The Israeli military absolutely does not enter Gaza frivolously as…

Gaza and the West Bank are one entity, according to the Oslo Accords of 1993

Chompsky writes: "The policies are quite clear. Their roots go back to the 1967 war and they have been pursued with particular dedication since the Oslo Accords of September 1993.

The Accords determined that Gaza and the West Bank are an indivisible territorial entity. Israel and the U.S. moved at once to separate them, which means that any autonomy Palestinians might gain in the West Bank will have no direct access to the outside world."

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20130816.htm

Re: Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

#40
post #37
post #22

Right, I'm going to post this at the top level in the hopes that the extremely intelligent people of HN see it and remember why we're all here. As I said below: This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's remove…

Why are talking about politics so bad? If you dont talk about politics and if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip then how can you understand why running a startup incubator there is such a feat? Many of the extremely intelligent people on HN are here because they want to change the world in some way. Hopefully for the better. Politics is one of the most powerful tools for impr…

It would be wonderful if we could talk about it, and there are other political subjects that get reasonable debate around here (from which I've learnt a lot). But in this case, it always turns into a flamewar. The result is that any interesting article regarding anything happening in Gaza ends up a total mess that has to be flagged and eventually removed from the front page.

From the guidelines [0]:

"In Comments: Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them."

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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