Palestine online : transnationalism, the internet and the construction of identity / Miriyam Aouragh.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [249]-264) and index.

Virtual reality from below -- Techno-political infrastructures -- Palestinian mobility offline and online -- Virtual space, territorial place -- The making of Palestine online -- At the crossroads : Internet cafes.

For Palestine's diaspora and exiled communities, the internet has become an important medium for the formation of Palestinian national and transnational identity. Here, Miriyam Aouragh looks at the internet as both a space and an instrument for linking Palestinian diasporas in Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon - communities usually separated by state boundaries and/or travel restrictions. It is this space, which lies at the intersection between capitalism, technological development, the politics of representation and different modes of governance, which helps initiate, maintain, transform and strengthen internal Palestinian communication, as well as relations with global audiences. --

By exploring the tensions between mobility and immobility, Palestine Online develops an analysis of the re-construction of a specifically online shared identity, an imagined national community on a global, technological scale. However, it is this construction of a space in which to debate and formulate ideas about a shared virtual identity, which often serves as a reminder of the absence of a shared territorial place. Here, Aouragh provides a new angle on those affected by the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and furthers understanding about the connection between electronic media, politics and national identity more widely. --Book Jacket.