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Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

109 points by bootload 12y ago

ars 12y ago
It's interesting that even during the height of the recent Gaza war Israel maintained the Internet connections to Gaza. May increased communication and ventures like the article mention bring Gazans the democracy they desperately need.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- pavlov 12y ago
  Are you sure that the Internet connection to Gaza goes through Israel? I would have assumed that it's via Egypt instead, as Gaza has a land border there as well.
  - hrasyid 12y ago
    Yeah and the Egyptian regime is more interested in providing internet to Gazans than Israel? Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet? Any source/reference mentioning this?
    - aidos 12y ago
      The wikipedia page [0] claims that there are 4 ISPs providing internet in Gaza. I believe that in the case of electricity, Israel is obliged to provide power to the region under international law (since they control its borders). [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
      - smcl 12y ago
        Not to get too political\opinionated but Israel does not have a particularly strong reputation for respecting international laws regarding Palestine (West Bank or Gaza) which makes it even more surprising if they continued to supply power.
        ars 12y ago
        > which makes it even more surprising if they continued to supply power. You don't understand Israel at all. It would be surprising if they didn't supply power. Israel doesn't hate Gazans, they just want Gazans to stop attacking them. They pulled out of Gaza to give them less of a reason to hate Israel, but that didn't work. Israel has little interest in giving them a country, it is true. But not because they want to deny them a county but because they don't think it will help. After all pulling out of Gaza did not help - in fact it made it worse. Israel doesn't care about the UN because the UN is utterly obsessed with Israel, and essentially they don't consider the UN legitimate in this regard because of that obsession. Most of the world considers the UN a joke for exactly this reason (plus things like allowing known human right abusing countries to chair human rights commissions).
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        frozenport 12y ago
        Does this change your opinion?
        JupiterMoon 12y ago
        Didn't Israel bomb the power station in Gaza?
        Smokey28 12y ago
        Which is now up and running a shocking 46 weeks ahead of schedule. Don't believe everything you read.
        JupiterMoon 12y ago
        Not sure I follow you logic here. Because something got repaired then it is OK that it was smashed in the first place? Can you clarify?
    - ars 12y ago
      > Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet? As I said, it's via Israel. Same with phone service and postal mail.
      - JupiterMoon 12y ago
        Indeed everything enters or leaves via Israel...
  - pete_b 12y ago
    Eygpt also has a blockade at its border with Gaza. Must be something to do with the terrorists that run Gaza, and were voted in by the populace.
    - aidos 12y ago
      I'm going to downvote you because my sarcasm meter isn't functioning properly this morning and your comment is going to end up derailing a useful piece on a promising new startup culture in Gaza.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        ars 12y ago
        It's extremely easy to keep Israel from bombing Gaza: Don't launch rockets at Israel. Now presumably not all the residents of Gaza want to kill Israel, but enough do, and the rest suffer because of them (and because of the leaders they chose in their one and only election).
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        aidos 12y ago
        Look, I have very strong views on the subject. It's the political area I've delved deepest into in my life. I've read untold articles and numerous books on the subject. This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's removed within a couple of hours because people start banging on about politics. I could quite happy argue about it all day long, but not here, and not now.
  - waps 12y ago
    All online articles seem to indicate it goes through Israel : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/israel-gaza-internet_n_2159407.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/israel-gaza-interne... But the problem for the internet in the Gaza strip is not Israel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_the_Gaza_Strip#Music_and_Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_the_Gaza_Strip#... Now please keep in mind that "democratization" won't help. Over half of Gazans want this (and want to kill people who try to fix it - that seems to be what sharia ("the path of islam") demands). Democracy will make it worse. There seems to be a huge misconception here. On a large scale, and on average (NOT talking about any individuals here, just "average" human behavior), people who have been hurt don't want help. They don't want to help. They want to hurt others in the same way they were hurt. People who were beaten by their parents, on average, beat their children. People who come out of abusive homes in general, are abusive spouses. People who live in violence, become violent. This makes sense if you consider what algorithm the human mind must be running. One quickly arrives at the conclusion can only be an imitation algorithm (ie. what you do is copied from a past experience of what you saw someone else do), probably coupled with reinforcement learning and generalization mechanisms. This of course means something really, really bad for places like the Gaza strip. Left to their own devices, they will only sink deeper into their obsession, and become ever more abusive and restrictive until they literally start dying or at least completely stagnate. There is no way out that doesn't involve blowing up their state, and going against the wishes of the large majority of their population. Not, of course, the way Israel is doing that.
  - ars 12y ago
    Yes, I'm sure. I would assume the connection is monitored, but it is not censored. (There is censoring done internally though.) Egypt is not as technological as Israel, plus the border with Gaza is very very far from anything much in Egypt. It would take a lot of effort to bring Internet there. Israel also provides phone service to Gaza, both via lines to local towers and via towers located in Israel. People assume Egypt helps Gaza, but even in the Mubarak days they really didn't care about them much at all - just lip service. And certainly not today. They are not much different from the rest of the Arab world in this regard.
    - pavlov 12y ago
      Thanks for the reply, interesting information!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- beloch 12y ago
  I'd be surprised if Israel would permit Palestine to build network infrastructure crossing the border to Egypt. First, Israel is deeply suspicious of any construction projects in Palestine to the point of rigidly controlling imports of materials as prosaic as concrete. Underground tunnels for telecommunications, especially those crossing the border to Egypt, would be strictly verboten. Second, it's in Israel's interests to supply Gaza with as much of their communications needs as possible. Internet, cable TV, cellular communications, etc.. If they have a branch similar to the NSA this makes monitoring much easier. Also, if it ever proves strategically advantageous, they have the ability to disrupt all these channels of communication and deny them to their enemy. (That they haven't so far during conflict suggests they do monitor communications.) If Israel simply refused to provide these services Palestinians would find ways to obtain them that Israel would not control and may find more difficult to monitor.
  - blisterpeanuts 12y ago
    Concrete can be (and has obviously been) used to build infiltration tunnels under the border. If the Gazans were not building tunnels, and in general were not engaged in provocative acts such as firing rockets across the border, there's no limit to the trade and investment that could be happening between the two regions. The sea coast could be a billion dollar resort; the Gazan labor force could be productively employed; and the farms and greenhouses could be growing tons of items for consumption and export. This woman's enterprise, established under the sparsest of conditions, is an example of what can be done if there were peaceful relations and if the government in Gaza were truly representative and dedicated to peaceful negotiations etc. A warlike government that caters to the militants in Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs, etc., is simply uninterested in economic development, nor does it have any native expertise in that area. Its only legitimacy is based on armed conflict with its neighbor and armed suppression of dissidents internally.
aidos 12y ago
Right, I'm going to post this at the top level in the hopes that the extremely intelligent people of HN see it and remember why we're all here. As I said below: This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's removed within a couple of hours because people start banging on about politics. I could quite happy argue about it all day long, but not here, and not now.
- bjourne 12y ago
  Why are talking about politics so bad? If you dont talk about politics and if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip then how can you understand why running a startup incubator there is such a feat? Many of the extremely intelligent people on HN are here because they want to change the world in some way. Hopefully for the better. Politics is one of the most powerful tools for improving the world. So not talking about politics makes no sense.
  - aidos 12y ago
    It would be wonderful if we could talk about it, and there are other political subjects that get reasonable debate around here (from which I've learnt a lot). But in this case, it always turns into a flamewar. The result is that any interesting article regarding anything happening in Gaza ends up a total mess that has to be flagged and eventually removed from the front page. From the guidelines [0]: "In Comments: Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them." [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - ecommercematt 12y ago
    Without discussing politics, people with widely varying perspectives on Gaza understand that the present reality of life in Gaza poses extra challenges for those engaged in the inherently challenging pursuit of starting a startup. To understand why "talking about politics" is harmful on this site, let's review this excerpt from your post: "if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip" Hacker News isn't a good place for me to point out my many disagreements with your analysis, but to illustrate my point, I'll point out that: 1) the blockade isn't "complete," 2) Egypt also shares a border with Gaza and enforces a blockade, and 3) that making a claim that you're "not allowed to mention Israel's ____" is either an instance of, or (very probably) merely resembles, bigoted, anti-Jewish narratives about Jewish control of speech, the press, etc. I assume it just bears resemblance to bigotry, but can you understand why to some people particularly sensitive to anti-Jewish prejudice, this would make them a little bit uneasy? "Why are talking about politics so bad?" It isn't bad to talk about politics, but based on my feedback, do you see why your comments above lead to off-topic discussions for Hacker News? You know what really offends me, though? That damn auto-playing ad on the article!
gjm11 12y ago
For anyone thinking "oh, that's a clunky title", it may be worth pointing out the pun it's making. Milton's poem Samson Agonistes (a telling of the Biblical story of Samson) contains the following famous[1] lines (from Samson, lamenting his capture and blinding by the Philistines): Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves, Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke; and the phrase is second-order famous [2] because Aldous Huxley wrote a book called Eyeless in Gaza. (The title would be more than a clever but pointless allusion if, e.g., the article were about wireless networking use by Israeli spies in Gaza. But I can't imagine such an article surviving long without degenerating into the usual flamewar.) [1] That is: famous among those among whom such things are famous. [2] See [1].
reuven 12y ago
As an Israeli, I'm delighted to see Gaza citizens building businesses, gaining skills, and making money. This is in the mutual interest of Palestinians and Israelis alike. I wish that it were somehow possible for Israelis to help the Gazans in their attempts to build such businesses, but realize that this is (for now) sadly unrealistic. For now, I wish them great success, and am excited to see them start the process of giving Gaza a flourishing civilian economy.
- ezequiel-garzon 12y ago
  I applaud your attitude, and firmly believe you are part of a quiet (or less vocal) majority on both sides. Although this [1] project seems to have evaporated, things like that and your comment give great hope. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/technology/29compute.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/technology/29compute.html
  - adambenayoun 12y ago
    I'm Israeli too - I applaud and support the Gazan startup economy. I know this is the only hope to build a solid bridge between the Israeli and Gazan community. I wish both sides could be more vocal.
- jacalata 12y ago
  You can donate directly to the startup incubator, for the next 20 hours: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.
  - ikonst 12y ago
    You're mixing up Gaza and the West Bank. What Israel (and Egypt) are doing is - 1) blockading Gaza, 2) entering armed conflicts with the Hamas with high human casualties and vast damage to infrastructure Israel is not occupying Gaza. All settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza The Israeli military absolutely does not enter Gaza frivolously as it does in the West Bank, and Hamas law is in full effect there, not Israeli martial law. Supporting the project on Indiegogo is probably the best thing to do, as an Israeli: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...
thenipper 12y ago
Whoa! I work for Mercy Corps, the agency funding this. It is really awesome to see something from work here. I'm obviously biased but I think it is a great program that is really helping the people of Gaza. Additionally the focus on women and helping them enter the work force is really great. As jacalata said they are doing a fundraiser that ends in about 20 hours if you want to help out: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...
- seivan 12y ago
  Well, with 200 million euro annually pumped there by Sweden alone I'd be surprised if we didn't see stuff like this. While now we can't feed Syrian refugees because the UN is out of money. Not to mention the genocide on Christian Arabs, or kidnappings for sex-slavery of over 7000 female Yezidis by Arabic and Somalian islamists largely from Europe. But hey... lets riot and collect money for Gaza.
  - bjourne 12y ago
    Actually 282m SEK 2014 or about 30m € in total aid to the Palestinian territories: http://www.sida.se/English/press/current-topics-archive/2014/10-million-sek-to-gaza/ http://www.sida.se/English/press/current-topics-archive/2014... So you're off by a factor of 10 but it's still a lot.
    - seivan 12y ago
      Sweden donated 1.37 billion SEK 2007. That makes approx 200 million Euro. My bad for assuming it had continue to be that large, I assumed because recent recognition. http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/sverige-okar-bistandet-till-palestina_693023.svd http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/sverige-okar-bistandet-... Additional reading http://motbilder.blogspot.se/2007/12/dns-mrkliga-rkning-om-palestinskt.html http://motbilder.blogspot.se/2007/12/dns-mrkliga-rkning-om-p...
      - bjourne 12y ago
Yadi 12y ago
Kudos SkyGeeks folks! I'm from North Iraq I know how much of dedication and hard work it takes to leverage a startup. Don't speak the politics language, when you do business or become an entrepreneur open your doors to everyone. I'm sure there would be people from Israel or any other region be willing to invest in your talents and skills. Follow the dream & passion don't let the other trivial stuff staph! you.
imontauk 12y ago
Hi all - I'm the director of Gaza Sky Geeks. Great to see this conversation taking place. Thanks to all of you who have supported our work! A new piece was just written about us by NPR, and if you Googled "Gaza" yesterday, this was one of the top search results: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/12/14/370139477/gaza-tech-incubator-finds-success-in-international-crowdfunding http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/12/14/370139... Our crowdfunding campaign has been extended until January 8. If you haven't already supported and told your friends about it, please do! It's at http://www.gazastarts.com http://www.gazastarts.com. I'll also be in the Bay Area from Dec 22 - Jan 6, and while I'll be primarily focused on friends & family, I'd be happy to set up a coffee side chat if entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley want to hear what it's like to launch startups in Gaza. For those of you in Israel, I pass through Jerusalem frequently and Tel Aviv occasionally, and can also meet up there. When I arrived to Gaza over a year ago, I had no idea what I'd find. What's made me so dedicated to Gaza Sky Geeks is the untapped potential I see. As we nurture startups in Gaza, one of our goals is to develop expertise in launching startups in frontier markets more broadly. Do reach out to us at info@gazaskygeeks.com if you'd like to engage with our work.

109 points by bootload 12y ago

ars 12y ago

It's interesting that even during the height of the recent Gaza war Israel maintained the Internet connections to Gaza. May increased communication and ventures like the article mention bring Gazans the democracy they desperately need.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
pavlov 12y ago
Are you sure that the Internet connection to Gaza goes through Israel? I would have assumed that it's via Egypt instead, as Gaza has a land border there as well.
- hrasyid 12y ago
  Yeah and the Egyptian regime is more interested in providing internet to Gazans than Israel? Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet? Any source/reference mentioning this?
  - aidos 12y ago
    The wikipedia page [0] claims that there are 4 ISPs providing internet in Gaza. I believe that in the case of electricity, Israel is obliged to provide power to the region under international law (since they control its borders). [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
    - smcl 12y ago
      Not to get too political\opinionated but Israel does not have a particularly strong reputation for respecting international laws regarding Palestine (West Bank or Gaza) which makes it even more surprising if they continued to supply power.
      - ars 12y ago
        > which makes it even more surprising if they continued to supply power. You don't understand Israel at all. It would be surprising if they didn't supply power. Israel doesn't hate Gazans, they just want Gazans to stop attacking them. They pulled out of Gaza to give them less of a reason to hate Israel, but that didn't work. Israel has little interest in giving them a country, it is true. But not because they want to deny them a county but because they don't think it will help. After all pulling out of Gaza did not help - in fact it made it worse. Israel doesn't care about the UN because the UN is utterly obsessed with Israel, and essentially they don't consider the UN legitimate in this regard because of that obsession. Most of the world considers the UN a joke for exactly this reason (plus things like allowing known human right abusing countries to chair human rights commissions).
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      - frozenport 12y ago
        Does this change your opinion?
        JupiterMoon 12y ago
        Didn't Israel bomb the power station in Gaza?
        Smokey28 12y ago
        Which is now up and running a shocking 46 weeks ahead of schedule. Don't believe everything you read.
        JupiterMoon 12y ago
        Not sure I follow you logic here. Because something got repaired then it is OK that it was smashed in the first place? Can you clarify?
  - ars 12y ago
    > Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet? As I said, it's via Israel. Same with phone service and postal mail.
    - JupiterMoon 12y ago
      Indeed everything enters or leaves via Israel...
- pete_b 12y ago
  Eygpt also has a blockade at its border with Gaza. Must be something to do with the terrorists that run Gaza, and were voted in by the populace.
  - aidos 12y ago
    I'm going to downvote you because my sarcasm meter isn't functioning properly this morning and your comment is going to end up derailing a useful piece on a promising new startup culture in Gaza.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
      - ars 12y ago
        It's extremely easy to keep Israel from bombing Gaza: Don't launch rockets at Israel. Now presumably not all the residents of Gaza want to kill Israel, but enough do, and the rest suffer because of them (and because of the leaders they chose in their one and only election).
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        aidos 12y ago
        Look, I have very strong views on the subject. It's the political area I've delved deepest into in my life. I've read untold articles and numerous books on the subject. This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's removed within a couple of hours because people start banging on about politics. I could quite happy argue about it all day long, but not here, and not now.
- waps 12y ago
  All online articles seem to indicate it goes through Israel : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/israel-gaza-internet_n_2159407.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/israel-gaza-interne... But the problem for the internet in the Gaza strip is not Israel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_the_Gaza_Strip#Music_and_Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_the_Gaza_Strip#... Now please keep in mind that "democratization" won't help. Over half of Gazans want this (and want to kill people who try to fix it - that seems to be what sharia ("the path of islam") demands). Democracy will make it worse. There seems to be a huge misconception here. On a large scale, and on average (NOT talking about any individuals here, just "average" human behavior), people who have been hurt don't want help. They don't want to help. They want to hurt others in the same way they were hurt. People who were beaten by their parents, on average, beat their children. People who come out of abusive homes in general, are abusive spouses. People who live in violence, become violent. This makes sense if you consider what algorithm the human mind must be running. One quickly arrives at the conclusion can only be an imitation algorithm (ie. what you do is copied from a past experience of what you saw someone else do), probably coupled with reinforcement learning and generalization mechanisms. This of course means something really, really bad for places like the Gaza strip. Left to their own devices, they will only sink deeper into their obsession, and become ever more abusive and restrictive until they literally start dying or at least completely stagnate. There is no way out that doesn't involve blowing up their state, and going against the wishes of the large majority of their population. Not, of course, the way Israel is doing that.
- ars 12y ago
  Yes, I'm sure. I would assume the connection is monitored, but it is not censored. (There is censoring done internally though.) Egypt is not as technological as Israel, plus the border with Gaza is very very far from anything much in Egypt. It would take a lot of effort to bring Internet there. Israel also provides phone service to Gaza, both via lines to local towers and via towers located in Israel. People assume Egypt helps Gaza, but even in the Mubarak days they really didn't care about them much at all - just lip service. And certainly not today. They are not much different from the rest of the Arab world in this regard.
  - pavlov 12y ago
    Thanks for the reply, interesting information!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
beloch 12y ago
I'd be surprised if Israel would permit Palestine to build network infrastructure crossing the border to Egypt. First, Israel is deeply suspicious of any construction projects in Palestine to the point of rigidly controlling imports of materials as prosaic as concrete. Underground tunnels for telecommunications, especially those crossing the border to Egypt, would be strictly verboten. Second, it's in Israel's interests to supply Gaza with as much of their communications needs as possible. Internet, cable TV, cellular communications, etc.. If they have a branch similar to the NSA this makes monitoring much easier. Also, if it ever proves strategically advantageous, they have the ability to disrupt all these channels of communication and deny them to their enemy. (That they haven't so far during conflict suggests they do monitor communications.) If Israel simply refused to provide these services Palestinians would find ways to obtain them that Israel would not control and may find more difficult to monitor.
- blisterpeanuts 12y ago
  Concrete can be (and has obviously been) used to build infiltration tunnels under the border. If the Gazans were not building tunnels, and in general were not engaged in provocative acts such as firing rockets across the border, there's no limit to the trade and investment that could be happening between the two regions. The sea coast could be a billion dollar resort; the Gazan labor force could be productively employed; and the farms and greenhouses could be growing tons of items for consumption and export. This woman's enterprise, established under the sparsest of conditions, is an example of what can be done if there were peaceful relations and if the government in Gaza were truly representative and dedicated to peaceful negotiations etc. A warlike government that caters to the militants in Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs, etc., is simply uninterested in economic development, nor does it have any native expertise in that area. Its only legitimacy is based on armed conflict with its neighbor and armed suppression of dissidents internally.

aidos 12y ago

Right, I'm going to post this at the top level in the hopes that the extremely intelligent people of HN see it and remember why we're all here. As I said below: This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same. If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's removed within a couple of hours because people start banging on about politics. I could quite happy argue about it all day long, but not here, and not now.

bjourne 12y ago
Why are talking about politics so bad? If you dont talk about politics and if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip then how can you understand why running a startup incubator there is such a feat? Many of the extremely intelligent people on HN are here because they want to change the world in some way. Hopefully for the better. Politics is one of the most powerful tools for improving the world. So not talking about politics makes no sense.
- aidos 12y ago
  It would be wonderful if we could talk about it, and there are other political subjects that get reasonable debate around here (from which I've learnt a lot). But in this case, it always turns into a flamewar. The result is that any interesting article regarding anything happening in Gaza ends up a total mess that has to be flagged and eventually removed from the front page. From the guidelines [0]: "In Comments: Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them." [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ecommercematt 12y ago
  Without discussing politics, people with widely varying perspectives on Gaza understand that the present reality of life in Gaza poses extra challenges for those engaged in the inherently challenging pursuit of starting a startup. To understand why "talking about politics" is harmful on this site, let's review this excerpt from your post: "if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip" Hacker News isn't a good place for me to point out my many disagreements with your analysis, but to illustrate my point, I'll point out that: 1) the blockade isn't "complete," 2) Egypt also shares a border with Gaza and enforces a blockade, and 3) that making a claim that you're "not allowed to mention Israel's ____" is either an instance of, or (very probably) merely resembles, bigoted, anti-Jewish narratives about Jewish control of speech, the press, etc. I assume it just bears resemblance to bigotry, but can you understand why to some people particularly sensitive to anti-Jewish prejudice, this would make them a little bit uneasy? "Why are talking about politics so bad?" It isn't bad to talk about politics, but based on my feedback, do you see why your comments above lead to off-topic discussions for Hacker News? You know what really offends me, though? That damn auto-playing ad on the article!

gjm11 12y ago

For anyone thinking "oh, that's a clunky title", it may be worth pointing out the pun it's making. Milton's poem Samson Agonistes (a telling of the Biblical story of Samson) contains the following famous[1] lines (from Samson, lamenting his capture and blinding by the Philistines): Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves, Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke; and the phrase is second-order famous [2] because Aldous Huxley wrote a book called Eyeless in Gaza. (The title would be more than a clever but pointless allusion if, e.g., the article were about wireless networking use by Israeli spies in Gaza. But I can't imagine such an article surviving long without degenerating into the usual flamewar.) [1] That is: famous among those among whom such things are famous. [2] See [1].

reuven 12y ago

As an Israeli, I'm delighted to see Gaza citizens building businesses, gaining skills, and making money. This is in the mutual interest of Palestinians and Israelis alike. I wish that it were somehow possible for Israelis to help the Gazans in their attempts to build such businesses, but realize that this is (for now) sadly unrealistic. For now, I wish them great success, and am excited to see them start the process of giving Gaza a flourishing civilian economy.

ezequiel-garzon 12y ago
I applaud your attitude, and firmly believe you are part of a quiet (or less vocal) majority on both sides. Although this [1] project seems to have evaporated, things like that and your comment give great hope. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/technology/29compute.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/technology/29compute.html
- adambenayoun 12y ago
  I'm Israeli too - I applaud and support the Gazan startup economy. I know this is the only hope to build a solid bridge between the Israeli and Gazan community. I wish both sides could be more vocal.
jacalata 12y ago
You can donate directly to the startup incubator, for the next 20 hours: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
It's totally possible to help, for starters you could be campaigning to end the settlements and occupation.
- ikonst 12y ago
  You're mixing up Gaza and the West Bank. What Israel (and Egypt) are doing is - 1) blockading Gaza, 2) entering armed conflicts with the Hamas with high human casualties and vast damage to infrastructure Israel is not occupying Gaza. All settlements in the Gaza strip were dismantled in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza The Israeli military absolutely does not enter Gaza frivolously as it does in the West Bank, and Hamas law is in full effect there, not Israeli martial law. Supporting the project on Indiegogo is probably the best thing to do, as an Israeli: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...

thenipper 12y ago

Whoa! I work for Mercy Corps, the agency funding this. It is really awesome to see something from work here. I'm obviously biased but I think it is a great program that is really helping the people of Gaza. Additionally the focus on women and helping them enter the work force is really great. As jacalata said they are doing a fundraiser that ends in about 20 hours if you want to help out: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-accelerator https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-gaza-s-only-startup-...

seivan 12y ago
Well, with 200 million euro annually pumped there by Sweden alone I'd be surprised if we didn't see stuff like this. While now we can't feed Syrian refugees because the UN is out of money. Not to mention the genocide on Christian Arabs, or kidnappings for sex-slavery of over 7000 female Yezidis by Arabic and Somalian islamists largely from Europe. But hey... lets riot and collect money for Gaza.
- bjourne 12y ago
  Actually 282m SEK 2014 or about 30m € in total aid to the Palestinian territories: http://www.sida.se/English/press/current-topics-archive/2014/10-million-sek-to-gaza/ http://www.sida.se/English/press/current-topics-archive/2014... So you're off by a factor of 10 but it's still a lot.
  - seivan 12y ago
    Sweden donated 1.37 billion SEK 2007. That makes approx 200 million Euro. My bad for assuming it had continue to be that large, I assumed because recent recognition. http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/sverige-okar-bistandet-till-palestina_693023.svd http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/sverige-okar-bistandet-... Additional reading http://motbilder.blogspot.se/2007/12/dns-mrkliga-rkning-om-palestinskt.html http://motbilder.blogspot.se/2007/12/dns-mrkliga-rkning-om-p...
    - bjourne 12y ago

Yadi 12y ago

Kudos SkyGeeks folks! I'm from North Iraq I know how much of dedication and hard work it takes to leverage a startup. Don't speak the politics language, when you do business or become an entrepreneur open your doors to everyone. I'm sure there would be people from Israel or any other region be willing to invest in your talents and skills. Follow the dream & passion don't let the other trivial stuff staph! you.

imontauk 12y ago

Hi all - I'm the director of Gaza Sky Geeks. Great to see this conversation taking place. Thanks to all of you who have supported our work! A new piece was just written about us by NPR, and if you Googled "Gaza" yesterday, this was one of the top search results: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/12/14/370139477/gaza-tech-incubator-finds-success-in-international-crowdfunding http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/12/14/370139... Our crowdfunding campaign has been extended until January 8. If you haven't already supported and told your friends about it, please do! It's at http://www.gazastarts.com http://www.gazastarts.com. I'll also be in the Bay Area from Dec 22 - Jan 6, and while I'll be primarily focused on friends & family, I'd be happy to set up a coffee side chat if entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley want to hear what it's like to launch startups in Gaza. For those of you in Israel, I pass through Jerusalem frequently and Tel Aviv occasionally, and can also meet up there. When I arrived to Gaza over a year ago, I had no idea what I'd find. What's made me so dedicated to Gaza Sky Geeks is the untapped potential I see. As we nurture startups in Gaza, one of our goals is to develop expertise in launching startups in frontier markets more broadly. Do reach out to us at info@gazaskygeeks.com if you'd like to engage with our work.