<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Gaza bloggers build bridges to outside&nbsp;world]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div class="cnn_stryathrtmp">
<div class="cnnByline">By  <strong>Catriona Davies</strong> for CNN</div>
<div class="cnn_strytmstmp">February 4, 2011 &#8212; Updated 1033 GMT (1833 HKT)</div>
</div>
<div class="cnn_stryimg640captioned"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/WORLD/meast/02/04/gaza.bloggers/t1larg.author.jpg" border="0" alt="Laila El-Haddad, author of Gaza Mom, has been blogging since 2004." width="640" height="360" /></div>
<div class="cnn_stryimg640caption">
<div class="cnn_strycaptiontxt">Laila El-Haddad, author of Gaza Mom, has been blogging since 2004.</div>
</div>
<div class="cnn_strylftcntnt">
<div class="cnn_strylctcntr">
<div><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></div>
<ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght">
<li>Gazan bloggers come from wide range of backgrounds and experiences</li>
<li>Some say their blogs provide a link with the rest of the world</li>
<li>They say a growing number of people are blogging from Gaza</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<p><strong>(CNN)</strong> &#8212; In Gaza, bloggers say they are using the internet to share the realities of their daily lives with the wider world.</p>
<p>Mona El-Farra, a 56-year-old doctor and human rights activist, began writing her blog <a href="http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/" target="new">From Gaza, with Love</a> in 2006.</p>
<p>She  said she started distributing her diary by email after her parents&#8217;  home was demolished by the Israeli army in 2000, and later the diary  became a blog.</p>
<p>El-Farra said her parents&#8217; home was demolished without warning for what the army described to her as &#8220;security reasons.&#8221;</p>
<div class="cnn_strylftcntnt">
<div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylctcquote">
<div class="cnn_strylctcqcntr">
<div>I feel I&#8217;m not alone, but in contact with the whole world through my blog.<br />
<span>&#8211;Mona Al-Farra, Gazan blogger</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>El-Farra said: &#8220;I feel better when I write. I feel I&#8217;m not alone, but in contact with the whole world through my blog.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to create a bridge between the people I work with &#8212; women, children, patients &#8212; and the outside world.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been a lot of violence to write about in the last five years: shootings and killings under occupation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Israel officially disengaged from Gaza in 2005, but many Palestinians still regard Gaza as &#8220;occupied.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gaza  has been subjected to an Israeli and Egyptian economic blockade (which  Cairo officially denies) since 2007. Although some restrictions were  lifted last year it remains difficult for Gazans to travel.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blogging is my most important link with the outside world, and through the blog I have made many more links,&#8221; El-Farra added.</p>
<p>As  well as giving Gazans a chance to connect with the rest of the world,  their blogs give those outside the region an inside view of Gaza.</p>
<p>El-Farra said her blog has thousands of readers from all over the world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gazamom.com/" target="new">Laila El-Haddad</a>,  who lives in the United States but travels back to Gaza to visit her  parents as often as she can, was among the first to begin blogging  during a visit in 2004.</p>
<p>She said: &#8220;My blog opened up a window at a time when there were few windows to understanding what life was like in Gaza.&#8221;</p>
<p>El-Haddad  has long tried to encourage others in Gaza to write blogs, and said in  the last few months there had been an explosion of interest in both  social media and blogging.</p>
<p>She said: &#8220;This summer it finally  started to stick. I met several young bloggers who had recently started.  Just in the last few months, both social media and blogging have really  taken off in Gaza.&#8221;</p>
<p>El-Haddad said she understands from her own experiences the problems facing aspiring bloggers in Gaza.</p>
<p>&#8220;I  know how difficult it is just to survive under an occupation,&#8221; she  said. &#8220;It takes a lot more to have the energy to write about what you  are going through. It&#8217;s not something that everyone can do.</p>
<p>&#8220;Being in Gaza can be suffocating and it&#8217;s a challenge to be able to verbalize what you are living through.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite these barriers, there are many who are willing to write about their experiences.</p>
<p><a href="http://abuelsharif.com/abuelsharif/" target="new">Sharif Al Sharif</a>, a 27-year-old media co-coordinator for a Palestinian youth organization, began blogging in 2006.</p>
<div class="cnn_strylftcntnt">
<div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylctcquote">
<div class="cnn_strylctcqcntr">
<div>People don&#8217;t want to hear the same things that are on the news, they want to hear something more personal.<br />
<span>&#8211;Sharif Al Sharif, Gazan blogger</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="cnn_strylftcntnt">
<div class="cnn_strylctcntr cnn_strylctcqrelt">
<div><strong>RELATED TOPICS</strong></div>
<ul class="cnn_bulletbin">
<li> <a href="http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Blogs_and_Blogging">Blogs and Blogging</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Gaza_Strip">Gaza</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Palestinian_Politics">Palestinian Politics</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<p>He said: &#8220;I started writing about the  Palestinian cause for an international audience, but then I realized  people don&#8217;t want to hear the same things that are on the news, they  want to hear something more personal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now I write about my daily  life in Gaza. Sometimes I write about movies or music that I like, but  politics is never far away in Gaza. It&#8217;s mixed up with everything.&#8221;</p>
<p>Al Sharif said the number of bloggers, as well as those using social media, had multiplied in Gaza in the past year.</p>
<p>&#8220;Palestinians  want to share their thoughts,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not every aspect of life can  be shared in public, so sometimes people need to vent anonymously.&#8221;</p>
<p>Al Sharif&#8217;s 21-year-old sister Lina also writes a well-read blog, <a href="http://livefromgaza.wordpress.com/the-blogger/" target="new">Live from Gaza: 360 km2 of chaos</a>.</p>
<p>El-Haddad,  33, has recently written a book, &#8220;Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics,  Parenting and Everything In Between,&#8221; based on her blog.</p>
<p>El-Haddad  began her blog during a visit to Gaza with her baby son as a way of  keeping in touch with her husband in the United States, himself a  Palestinian refugee.</p>
<p>However, when she became stuck in Egypt for  six weeks with her nine-month-old son because the border with Gaza was  closed, she realized how the blog could help people in the wider world  understand life for Palestinians.</p>
<p>&#8220;At that time I saw the  political merge with the personal, and the political is very personal  for Palestinians,&#8221; El-Haddad said. &#8220;I was able in a small way to  highlight the plight of so many other Palestinians trying to get back to  Gaza.&#8221;</p>
<p>Not everyone supports the bloggers. El-Farra said she  often receives hostile comments on her blog from people who don&#8217;t  approve of her writing about peace, but she refuses to be intimidated.</p>
<p>For El-Haddad, the fact that she writes about her young children &#8212; aged seven and three &#8212; often attracts criticism.</p>
<p class="cnnInline">She  said: &#8220;I get a lot of critical comments that I&#8217;m putting my children in  harm&#8217;s way, but my first instinct is that they&#8217;re just an attempt to  silence that Palestinian narrative. I know that I always have the best  interests of my family at heart.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/04/gaza.bloggers/">Gaza bloggers build bridges to outside world &#8211; CNN.com</a>.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i2.wp.com/i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/WORLD/meast/02/04/gaza.bloggers/t1larg.author.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[440]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[248]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>