''The Palestine Telegraph'' is the first

online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

based in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

. Its staff is composed of

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

and international volunteers, both professional journalists and "citizen journalists who do not take assignments from editors or paychecks from corporate controlled media."The Palestine Telegraph
GlobalPost Sameh Habeeb, the founder of the newspaper, was then a Gaza resident and photojournalist.US 'pressured Abbas on UN report'

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...

, October 4, 2009 The aim, according to Habeeb, is to disseminate, "the voices of the People of Palestine, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and other

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

around the world."Palestinian online newspaper to be launched soon

Internews Internews Network, now Internews, is a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in California, formed in 1982. It was founded by David M. Hoffman, Kim Spencer, and Evelyn Messinger. The president and CEO is Jeanne Bourgault. Internews Europe is an i ...

, February 2, 2009 The newspaper began as a blog operated by 23-year-old Habeeb, which was based in the

throughout the three-week Gaza War in the winter of 2008-2009. Issuing up-to-the-minute reports from his computer, he described the situation on his

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

software based blog. The premiere edition of the electronic newspaper format under the name ''The Palestine Telegraph'' came out on March 11, 2009.We Will Change Our World
The Palestine Telegraph, March 11, 2009 The newspaper is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

venture that relies on donor contributions for its operations. Habeeb sits on the Board of Directors as the Chair and Founder and serves as the Editor-in-chief. In February 2010, the newspaper generated controversy when it published an article which claimed that an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

emergency aid hospital in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

(after the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

) was secretly harvesting organs and selling them on the black market. The article, written by American blogger Stephen Lendman, cited a video broadcast on Hezbollah's ''

Al-Manar Al-Manar ( ar, المنار, ''al-Manār'', lit='' The Lighthouse'') is a Lebanese satellite television station owned and operated by the political party Hezbollah,

'' television, which consisted of a warning from an individual named "T West" who claimed to represent the group AfriSynergy, but cited no evidence. In response, founding chairman Sameh Habeeb stated that Lendman’s article represents "him and his views. Some people believe in this and some don’t". In the aftermath, Baroness Tonge, at this time a patron of ''The Palestine Telegraph'', had to stand down as health spokesperson in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

on February 12, 2010. In a follow-up article by ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'' on February 14, 2010, which denounced the claim of organ harvesting as false, Baroness Tonge called the claim "a silly allegation".Haiti organ harvesting claims false
by Jonny Paul, ''

'', February 14, 2010. Baroness Tonge resigned from the Board of Patrons in April 2010, after ''The Palestine Telegraph'' posted a video — since removed — from

David Duke David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member ...

, former leader of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, who claimed Israel presented a terrorism threat to the United States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palestine Telegraph Middle Eastern news websites Electronic publishing Gaza Strip Mass media in the State of Palestine 2009 establishments in the Palestinian territories Mass media in Gaza City Asian news websites