<nettime> nettime and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Dear all,

I not am sure if everyone is so happy, to see nettime turning into a general
debating club about the world's problems - particularly the complex
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I would propose that there should at least be
a media angle of some kind to the analyses people post. Obviously, Myths of
the Middle East by Joseph Farah doesn't stress the Internet aspect of the
psychological (info)warfare which is currently taking place. There is not a
single reference all that in this story. Just eternal historical truths (or
myths, depending on one's perspective). I would therefor propose to the
moderators of the international nettime list, Ted Byfield and Felix Stalder,
to filter out those messages that only debate general characteristics of the
conflict. From the media/Internet perspective there is anyway enough to
inquire! Let's discuss the attempts by the Palestinian authority to build
it's own telecommunication infrastructure, the radio, television and
printing press landscape in both Israel and the occupied territories. Or the
role of CNN and the pseudo neutral US-American media industry. Let's tap
into the Israelian peace movement and it's resistance against the brutal
militarism of the Israelian army, the weird, so-called 'secret role' (CNN)
of the CIA, cyber warfare, you name it. Not the trueisms about nation
states, it's history, no matter how important and interesting these heated
debates may be. During the Kosov@ conflict in April/May 1999 there were at
least people from the region itself posting (even though almost none of them
were Kosovar Albanians...). There were strong tensions, and emotions, like
at this very moment. Let's at least try to contextualize our debates with
material from independant media, NGOs, net initiatives,  people who are
doing research into the technological media/cyber aspect. That's at least
what I would expect from nettime.

Best, Geert

PS. I myself prefer posting to nettime@bbs.thing.net. I agree with Josephine
Bosma that there is some confusion about the difference between the
moderated nettime list and the open, unmoderated list, nettime-bold. I think
Felix has sufficiently explained what the procedure is. The current nettime
setup is perhaps not ideal and could certainly be improved. Any suggestion
is more than welcome. Michael van Eeden (mieg@waag.org), working out of the
Society for Old and New Media, is doing a wonderful job as nettime's system
administrator to improve the whole setup of lists.

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