ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the increasing number of ways in which the seemingly intractable conflict between Palestinians and the State of Israel is being played out in cyberspace through the use of a variety of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. During the 1980s, telecommunications, computers, and media technologies began to emerge and were eventually aggregated under the ICT label. The internet incubated and integrated these technologies into a unified system. ICT evolved into a general purpose technology and has become the foremost disruptive technology of the modern age. It is disruptive in the sense that it redefines and challenges how we understand and constitute public and private spheres, and it is also transforming the ways in which we live and work (Ekekwe and Islam 2012). This disruption impacts on the political arenas of peace, conf lict, community, and nationhood. ICT has enabled the formation of transnational communities and networks outside established state boundaries in ways that, even a few years ago, would have been unimaginable. It also allows agents of change to engage in much more complex and far-reaching activities than traditional media can facilitate. A key effect of the disruption ICT produces is that communication capacity and power can be transferred to non-traditional actors who include not just citizens, activists, and hackers, but also peace advocates.
