arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 16, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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INTIFADA REACHES CYBERSPACE

By Gary Wilson

As Israeli soldiers started shooting Palestinian children
throwing rocks, the Israeli settler regime took their war
into cyberspace. The Israeli government set up operations
aimed at shutting down pro-Palestinian Web sites.

The Israeli government cannot control content on the
Internet the way it does with media in occupied Palestine.
So Tel Aviv attempted to block information from being spread
through the Web. The FBI appears to be assisting the Israeli
government's efforts to block pro-Palestinian news on the
Internet under the guise of "stopping terrorism."

The Israeli government has set up a military department for
its cyber operations called MAGLAN. MAGLAN has helped
publicize sites set up by Israeli "citizens" that give out
information for jamming Palestinian Web sites, fax machines
and cell phones.

In about a week, the Israeli forces had defaced or blocked
20 pro-Palestinian Web sites, according to a report on
ZDNet, a Web-based computer-industry publication. In the
following two weeks, supporters of the Palestinians had
brought down about 30 pro-Israeli sites. This includes a
widely publicized take over of the American Israeli Public
Affairs Committee site, which was replaced with Web pages
denouncing the massacre of Palestinians.

The cyber war was started by Israeli forces, as was
acknowledged by iDefense Intelligence Services, a Fairfax,
Va.-based company. An Oct. 31 iDefense report says that pro-
Palestinian actions on the Web are "seen as defensive
actions in response to offensive actions by pro-Israeli
attackers. This has significantly increased the talent pool
on the pro-Palestinian side."

In fact, the pro-Palestinian counter-offensive has been very
effective. The pro-Palestinian effort is now in Phase Three,
reports the Lebanese Daily Star. Phase Three aims to shut
down Israeli Internet service providers. A Phase Four has
also been announced. If the Israeli attacks on pro-
Palestinian Web sites continue, Israeli e-commerce sites
will be the next targets.

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