End digital violence against Palestinian women

Dear friends, 

Thank you for supporting our project to end digital violence against Palestinian women in Israel. In our last report, we told you about Kayan's efforts to protect Palestinian citizens' right to freedom of expression, and to battle their persecution for social media activities since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023. 

The recent arrest of Entisar Hijaze is just one extreme example in a long line of shocking cases. Hijazi is a teacher from Tamra who was previously known on social media mainly for clips of herself introducing children to animals in classrooms, as well as innocent dance clips and TikTok trends. In the beginning of October, she was arrested, blindfolded and detained for several days, while her house was raided, after the far-right National Security Minister had alerted the police to a clip that she had posted on 7 October 2023 on TikTok of herself dancing in a school in Nazareth to the tunes of Charlie Puth’s song “Betty Boop”, which involves the lyrics “good time”. Later, it emerged that the timing of the post was completely coincidental and happened before the events of this morning became widespread news.

In order to protect freedom of expression for Palestinian women and men in Israel, and to help them safeguard themselves from arrests, persecution or harassment online or in the real world for what they post on social media, be it in relation to the war or not, Kayan is showing them ways to protect their digital privacy. In October 2024, Kayan started a series of webinars that are presented every Friday at 6 pm Jerusalem time. The webinars are in Arabic, with simultaneous translation to Arabic sign-language.

We started on October 11, 2024, with a webinar about arbitrary prosecutions and suppression of freedoms in the workplace, where Kayan's Legal Department Coordinator Alhan Nahas-Daoud talked to human rights lawyer Awni Banna about legal changes since October 7, 2023, and the challenges they cause for our society. 

Then, on October 25, 2024, we organized a webinar on digital security and privacy protection, hosted by Hajar Abu Saleh, the Coordinator of Kayan’s Community Department, who talked to Marwa Hanna from 7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement. In this webinar, among other subjects, we described the concepts of digital rights and digital surveillance, showed how to post safely on social media, and also explained what Doxing and Phishing are.

The latest event about digital security in our Friday webinar series was on November 15, 2024, dedicated to a new law being legislated in Israel that will allow the police to spy on mobile phones and electronic devices. In the webinar, entitled "Legislation of Spying", Lian Derini, Project Coordinator at Kayan, talks to lawyer and human rights expert Abir Bakr about the new law's ramifications on the right to privacy.

Providing important information and meeting the critical need for digital literacy training during the current attack on freedom of expression in Israel, these webinars are reaching a wide audience. They have already been watched by 11,500 people, a growing number, as the recordings continue to be available on Kayan’s Facebook page. 

At Kayan's Support and Emergency Hotline, we are already seeing the success of Kayan's digital literacy efforts. We are receiving less cases of cyber-harrassment related to the war. "I think this is mainly because people have learned to stop posting about the war", relates Hotline Coordinator Yara Daw.

With your help, we will continue to prevent digital violence, cyberbullying and online harassment, educate women and girls about their rights and methods of protection, and provide legal and psychological support for the victims.

We are so glad to have you on our team!

Nisreen Tabari,

Director, Kayan – Feminist Organization

Links:

• Recording of webinar on October 11
• Recording of webinar on October 25
• Zoom link to webinar on November 15