Communications in the State of Palestine lags behind the world, though it still has telephone, radio, television, and internet. [1] The communications sector in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip faces many obstacles, such as the Oslo Accords that were signed with the Israeli authorities, which prevented the use of spectrum frequencies for the wireless communications sector except with the approval of the Israeli side, and other obstacles, all of which led to the prevention of bringing modern technology to Palestine. After an effort, Palestine obtained third generation wireless communications frequencies or 3G. The Oslo Accords signed with the Israeli side are not the only ones that control the telecommunications sector in Palestine. There are many other matters that control this sector, such as the Palestinian Telecommunications Law and international agreements in this regard. The table shows the extent of Palestine’s lag behind neighboring countries due to the Oslo Accords, the impact of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian territories, and many obstacles to obtaining technology from countries around the world and their control over Palestine’s spectrum frequencies.
There are several palestinian internet and telephone companies, major ones are:
The Israeli Ministry of Communications has control over the cellular communications and technology Palestinians may build, which has been limited to 3G. [6] Israeli bombardment, electricity blockades and fuel shortages have caused the near-total collapse of Gaza’s largest cell network providers. [7] There are two mobile operators in the Palestinian territories: Jawwal with 2.9m customers, [8] and Ooredoo with 1.4m customers [9] .
There are tens of licensed FM stations broadcasting in the Palestinian territories including but not limited to:
On October 1, 1999, the International Telecommunication Union assigned the call block E4A through E4Z to Palestine. Aircraft tail numbers, amateur radio stations, vessels at sea and other radio facilities licensed by the Palestinian Authority will carry call signs beginning with "E4."
In 2008 opennet stated "Access to Internet in the Palestinian territories remains relatively open, although social filtering of sexually explicit content has been implemented in Gaza. Internet in the West Bank remains almost entirely unfiltered, save for a single news Web site that was banned for roughly six months starting in late 2008. Media freedom is constrained in Gaza and the West Bank by the political upheaval and internal conflict as well as by the Israeli forces." [10]
On 23 April 2012, EFF published a list of websites censored by some Palestinian ISPs. [11] That same day, the Tor Project announced that they are witnessing politically motivated censorship in Bethlehem. [12]
In May 2012, the Ma'an news agency stated "The Palestinian Authority has quietly instructed Internet providers to block access to news websites whose reporting is critical of President Mahmoud Abbas." [13]
Palestine Post is responsible for providing postal service in West Bank, while the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology of the State of Palestine is responsible for postal service in the Gaza Strip. Generally, international letters addressed to West Bank are routed through both Jordan and Israel and the international letters addressed to Gaza are routed through only Israel. Delays often happen during sending and receiving letters from Palestine. Without these two national postal authorities, no international courier service would be serving the areas.[ citation needed ]
During the 2023 Israel–Gaza war, telecommunications company Paltel kept its networks online for most of the first six weeks. The company has a network operations center in Ramallah, West Bank. As of 2023, Paltel has 750 staff in Gaza, and they perform maintenance tasks such as repairing and refueling generators when an outage is detected. Five Paltel staff have been killed in the conflict. Paltel networks are essential for coordinating emergency services and humanitarian aid, and for documenting conditions inside Gaza. [14]
In response to previous wars in Gaza, Paltel has made preparations and has many contingencies to help keep its networks online. It buries its cables very deep (up to 26 feet), and has multiple power sources available such as batteries, solar panels, and generators. Ultimately, Paltel is reliant on Israel, because its two main fiber optic cables pass through Israel. Israel has turned off telecommunications by interfering with these cables twice before. [14]
On November 3, 2023, the BBC World Service launched an emergency radio service for Gaza, [15] broadcasting on long-range AM from the British East Mediterranean Relay Station, to "provide listeners in Gaza with the latest information and developments as well as safety advice on where to access shelter, food and water supplies". [16]
On November 16, 2023, due to fuel shortages, Internet and telephone services went down in Gaza. This also resulted in a suspension of humanitarian aid convoys because humanitarian agencies could not communicate. [17] On November 18, services were partially restored, after some fuel was allowed in and allocated to telecommunications. [18] On November 21, an Israeli strike against a telecommunications tower in North Gaza led to a telecommunications blackout in that area. [19]
An organisation called Connecting Humanity provides internet access to people in Gaza using donated eSIMs, allowing them to connect to networks outside of Gaza. [20] [21] [22] By December 2023 200,000 people living in Gaza (around 10% of the population) had received internet access through an eSIM. [23] [24] [25]
Telecommunications in the Maldives is under the control and supervision of the Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM). The Maldives is served by three telecommunications operators, Dhiraagu, Ooredoo Maldives and Raajjé Online.
The West Bank, so called due to its location relative to the Jordan River, is the larger of the two Palestinian territories that comprise the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the Levant region of West Asia, it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west, and north. Since 1967, the territory has been occupied by Israel and in 2024 an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice determined that the occupation is illegal under international law.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 145 out of 193 UN member states. It encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, collectively known as the Palestinian territories, within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region. The country shares most of its borders with Israel, and it borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its administrative center. Gaza City was its largest city until 2023.
The economy of the State of Palestine refers to the economic activity of the State of Palestine. Palestine receives substantial financial aid from international donors, including governments and international organizations. In 2020, the inflation rate of -0.7% and unemployment rate was 25.9%. While exports were recorded at US$ 1 billion, with an import value of US$ 6 billion. Contributors to the national economy is service sector (47%), wholesale and repair (19%), manufacturing (12%), agriculture (7%), finance and banking (3%), construction (5%), information technology (5%) and transportation sector (2%).
This article describes transport in the State of Palestine, which consists of two non-contiguous territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, different parts of which are administered by Palestinian National Authority, Hamas Administration in Gaza and Israel.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, the Palestinian territories was split between the Gaza Strip controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan, while the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights are parts of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, where Israel had transferred its parts of population there and built large settlements, is the longest military occupation in modern history.
Demographic features of the population of the area commonly described as the Palestinian territories includes information on ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of that population.
The country calling code +970 is reserved for telephone numbers in the State of Palestine.
The Palestinian National Authority began in 1994 to issue stamps and operate postal services as authorized by the Oslo Accords.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the State of Palestine:
Homosexuality in the Palestinian territories is considered a taboo subject; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience persecution and violence. There is a significant legal divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the former having more progressive laws and the latter having more conservative laws. Shortly after the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank in 1950, same-sex acts were decriminalized across the territory with the adoption of the Jordanian Penal Code of 1951. In the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and under Hamas' rule, however, no such initiative was implemented.
Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel) Company, listed in the Palestine Exchange (PEX) as Paltel, is a Palestinian telecommunications holding company based in Ramallah, Palestine. It consists of Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel), Palestine Cellular Communications Ltd, internet provide Hadara, Reach call center, and Palmedia broadcast media.
Palestine Cellular Communications Company, trading as Jawwal, is a Palestinian communications company providing cellular and wireless communications. Jawwal operates in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Paltel Group.
Dr. Abdul Malik Al-Jaber is a Palestinian businessman. He served as the CEO of Zain Jordan, the country's leading telecommunications provider for two years till July 1, 2011, and is a member of the board of the World Economic Forum.
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposes to resolve the conflict by establishing two nation states in former Mandatory Palestine. The implementation of a two-state solution would involve the establishment of an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel. The two-state solution is widely supported in the international community, as well as by the Palestinian Authority; however, Israel rejects the creation of a Palestinian state.
Palestine–Spain relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between these two countries. Palestine has an embassy in Madrid. Spain has a consulate general in East Jerusalem that serves the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Ibrahim Kharman is a Palestinian businessman. He is the Deputy CEO of the Palestine Telecommunications Group (Paltel) and the Chief Commercial Officer of Paltel Group. The Palestinian Communications Group is a public shareholding company established in 1995 in the Palestinian Autonomous Areas of the Palestinian National Authority It is the largest employer in Palestine.
Connecting Humanity is an activist collective which provides internet access to people in Gaza using donated eSIMs, allowing them to connect to networks outside of Gaza. It is run by Mirna El Helbawi, an Egyptian journalist, writer and activist. Over 200,000 people in Gaza have received internet access through an eSIM.
Mirna El Helbawi is an Egyptian journalist, writer, podcaster and activist. She is the founder of Connecting Humanity, a non-profit organisation that helps people in Gaza to regain access to the internet, using donated eSIMs. She was nominated for the Arab Journalism Award in 2016 and won the Electronic Frontier Foundation award for 'Championing internet access in Gaza' in 2024.