To many Palestinians, Israel’s ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip is destroying not just buildings and human lives, but a people and their history. With Israeli strikes expected to continue after a brief pause this week, one artist is trying to preserve that history with a digital archive that gathers remnants of the Palestinian internet as it existed in the late 90s and 2000s. 

The project, called Palestine Online, began as an attempt to show the historical struggle of the Palestinian people using their own words and media, from a time when the internet was first starting to take root as a medium of self-expression. This history is written throughout the vibrant, GIF-heavy, Geocities-era web pages, revealing a personalized and intimate side of Palestinian life that is often overlooked.

The project is particularly relevant now, as Palestinians in Gaza struggle to stay online and communicate with the outside world amid internet blackouts, destroyed infrastructure, and dwindling fuel supplies. 

You can read more in an article by Janus Rose published in the vice.com web site at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9qab/palestine-internet-preserved-90s-gifs.