Editor's Note:  Congratulations to Ramallah on Line (ROM) and Nick Marouf, Editor, for this review by This Week in Palestine.  The "garden" of Ramallah on Line has been steadily growing and blooming since the website was launched in 2000. There is no question that Ramallah on Line is a powerful and credible voice of the Palestinian people.  We are grateful for ROM as it continues to provide the voice of the Palestinian people to the world ... and support and encouragement to the indomitable Palestinian people who continue to fight for their sovereignty and freedom. It has been a pleasure to watch as Ramallah on Line has grown with excellent publications on the past, present and future of Beautiful Palestine. Please allow me to encourage you, as an Axis of Logic reader to visit this site for excellent reporting of news and commentary. Axis of Logic raises an imaginary glass to Ramallah on Line! - Les Blough

Website Review, This Week in Palestine, February, 2004

According to the website, the RamallahOnline (ROL) website was first launched on 29 February 2000. The site was initially devoted to information about Ramallah, Palestine; the history and the culture of the area. Over the years RamallahOnline has expanded to include news, viewpoints and testimonials from many contributors.

The website promises to “provide an online gateway with numerous viewpoints, room for discussion and open dialogue to reach a wide range of audience” [sic]. The main focus is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The site also has many members, Israelis, Palestinians and from around the world, participating on the site.

This is a very interesting site that I could not completely figure out from my first visit. This made it hard for me to classify it under either the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ website categories. I guess the reason is that it has a lot of good things but could also use a lot of improvements. On the one hand, it offers many solid articles about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as a mechanism for users to rate the articles so other users can search articles with the highest rating or the articles with the largest readership. The website also offers nice image galleries of such subjects as the Birzeit-Ramallah checkpoint and of some of the churches in Palestine. It also provides members the chance to customize their profile for other users to see, as well as a place where users can send each other messages.

On the downside, I found the website a bit too cluttered for my taste. Both navigation and design could use a complete overhaul. Moreover, some of the content was a bit weak and incomplete, although that is understandable since this is typical of the content one gets in a website that relies on users to populate the content, with very limited editorial scrutiny.

Overall, a good start for a project that has ample potential. If you want to support the site you can always donate money through the site and, even better, buy a bumper sticker. Good luck.

Bassem Nasir

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/inside.php?id=14&ed=87