GAZA
CITY, April 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Unlike the cell-phone mania
sweeping the Arab world, the sets are no luxury in the occupied
Palestinian territories, but rather a way of coping with the hard
times under an apparently never-ending sufferings caused by Israeli
occupation.
Palestinian
youths have indeed given the cellular technology a meaning by
harnessing it in their everyday lives, thanks partly to charge-free
services provided by operators.
And
they do not buy mobiles just to hear them ring.
“We
send SMS alerts to university students in the Gaza Strip informing
them about exam and registration dates and keep them updated on the
latest developments in their respective universities,” Ibrahim Salah,
head of the student movement Islamic Bloc, told IslamOnline.net
Saturday, April 30.
He
said students are just few clicks away from this service.
“All
they need is just o send us their full names, their universities and
their mobile numbers,” added Saleh.
On
the number of current subscribers, Saleh said the nascent service has
so far attracted up to ten thousands students.
Breaking
News
Sawt
Al-Aqsa radio has also made use of the technology and started sending
breaking news and updates for free to subscribers.
“People
are registering online then they have the news on their cells,”
radio director Raed Abu Dair told IOL.
He
said most of the subscribers are journalists and editors-in-chief of
Arab news Web sites.
“But
many Palestinians have joined the service as it became a great boon to
them,” he added.
The
alerts further serve as a wakeup call for Palestinians who want to
perform the Dawn prayers on time.
Mosques
regularly choose music-to-the-ears and eye-catching SMS to be their
couriers to sleepy Palestinians.
“We
search the net for interesting Web sites and often write our own
messages and send them,” Imam Abdel Rahman Salama told
IslamOnline.net.
Palestinian
detainees, for their part, never stop coming up with unconventional
methods or use the best their hands could reach to avoid the massive
isolative measures imposed by their Israeli jailers.
Many
of them use camera mobile phones to have a virtual contact with their
families and create a network to maintain internal solidarity among
them.
The
phones have the options to shoot photographs or record a video tape
for a few minutes or even seconds which could be sent to other mobiles
or e-mail boxes.
