Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network --------------------------------------------------------------------- ## author : alghassa@racsa.co.cr ## date : 25.07.99 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday July 25 11:09 AM ET Palestinian Refugees Surf The Internet DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (Reuters) - The first Internet center in a Palestinian refugee camp opened Sunday, Palestinian officials said. The fully equipped computer center at the Dheisheh refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem is the first phase of the ``Across Borders Project,'' which aims to introduce Internet technology to refugees in all Palestinian populated areas. The project, sponsored by Bethlehem's Birzeit University, will provide Internet training for camp residents and create Web sites in English and Arabic. Project organizers said one of their main goals was to create ``virtual travel over borders'' and reconnect displaced Palestinian families through e-mail or message boards. ``People living in Dheisheh will be able to speak to people in camps in Gaza or Lebanon. We can reconnect people who have been separated for perhaps more than 50 years,'' said Adam Hanieh, one of the project's coordinators. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to leave when Israel was created in 1948. More became refugees when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. More than four million Palestinian refugees are scattered in 59 refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and individually throughout the world. The Web sites for each camp will teach about the lives of Palestinians through oral histories, photo galleries and online testimonies from the refugees themselves. Organizers said within six months construction of another Internet center would begin in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Funding for Dheisheh's facilities came from Canada Fund, Palestine On-line and private donations. ---------------------------------- Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Mail administrative requests to 'majordomo@hrea.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at: http://www.human-rights.net/huridocs-tech.
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