PITA’s Fourth Ordinary General Assembly Meeting

PITA’s Fourth general assembly meeting was held on November 27, at PITA’s headquarter linked with Gaza members through a video conference facility. This meeting, originally scheduled in July, was postponed several times due to the continuous curfews imposed on most of the Palestinian cities. PITA members demonstrated high commitment by attending the meeting, as more than %85 of the members attended despite the prevailing movement restrictions. 

The meeting was kicked off with opening remarks from Mr. Ibrahim Barham, PITA’s Chairman of the Board , who briefed the members on PITA’s key activities and networking efforts that have taken place during the year. The financial audited report followed the opening remarks and was presented by Mr. Jamal Melhem of Talal Abu Ghazaleh & Co. auditing firm. Jameel Daher, PITA’s Secretary of the Board, presented the association’s administrative report in which details PITA’s Programs and activities, achievements and obstacles and analyzes PITA’s most salient strengths and weakness points.

New Board of Directors, Working towards a promising year

After having presented the annual financial and administrative reports in the first session of the General Assembly Meeting, the 2001/2002 Board of Directors was cleared of all financial and Administrative liability.  The second session of the meeting was dedicated to elections of a new Board of Directors for the year 2002/2003.

 We take this opportunity to extend our utmost gratitude to and appreciation of the 2001/2002 Board of Directors’ diligent efforts towards achieving PITA’s goals.  We wish them all the best of good luck in their private business endeavors.

The elected 2002/2003 Board of Directors is comprised of the following members:

1.        Mr. Ibrahim Barham, Safad Company, Chairman of the Board.

2.        Mr. Ahmed Abumarzouq, Palestine Internet Services co. (PIS), Vice Chairman of the Board.

3.        Dr. Yahya Al-Salqan, Jafa.Net, Secretary of the Board.

4.        Mr. Tareq Maayah, Siemens ICT, Treasurer.

5.        Mr. Murad Tahboub, Asal Tech,  Public Relations.

6.        Mr. Jameel Daher, Offtec, Board member.

7.        Mr. Mohammed Al-Alami, Future Tech, Board member.

Season’s Greetings

.PS Domain (Palestine code on the Internet) – Update

 The first official meeting of the Palestinian Naming Authority was held on November 24, in which the following was agreed to the following:

I.          The Naming Authority (NA) is an independent authority and its board will be the reference for the .PS domain and the NA.

II.       The NA board will have the full right to appoint or elect the chairman (Administrative contact), technical contact and the registry office.

III.    The NA will be financially independent, and all the financial documents and procedures will be audited by an external auditor.

IV.     The NA Board will be comprised of:  

1.   ISPs will be represented by two members to be elected by the registered and licensed Palestinian ISPs and Content providers.

2.   Local User Community will be represented by two members in the board and initially ISOC-PS will represent this sector.

3.   A representative for the telecommunication carriers sector will be added to the Board.

4.   The representative from MOHE will represent all higher education institutions in Palestine in the board.

5.   Several workgroups were formed to start the real technical, administrative, legal and financial work of PNINA in order to open the .ps domain for public registration by the start of next year.

6.   This Authority is to function as a true partnership between all Palestinian sectors interested in advancing the Internet and its technologies in Palestine.

7.   The Authority will create a Registration Unit that will be trusted with running the daily financial, administrative and technical tasks of the registration process under the close supervision of PNINA BoD.

8.   Meeting extensively during the short coming period in order to make up for the lost time.

Members News

I.       Jaffa.Net has announced the first business directory on the Internet www.weino.com

II.     ASAL Technologies, the Palestinian promising software development and outsourcing company, has launched recently four new products:

1.      New version of MyClass, Remote Electronic Education system, which contains Audio/Video, and screen capturing.

2.      LoanSys: Loan Management System.

3.      MegaStyle: Textile, Garments, and Dyeing Management System.

4.      MyNet: Internet Sharing Management System.

·         Successfully, ASAL Technologies exhibited those products during GITEX 2002, Dubai.

·         ASAL Technologies has achieved ISO 9001:2000 Certificate for Software Development and Solutions, in Sep 2002.

For further Information please do visit us at: www.asaltech.com

PITA’s member under Israeli Administrative Detention

Mr. Ayman Masri, the General Manager of Bailasan for Computers & Internet was arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces in April 2002. He was humiliated, tortured and harmed extensively to the extent that the prison administration had to transfer him to a hospital.

Mr. Masri has spent four months under Israeli Administrative Detention with no legal charges. That period was extended to another 6 months and until now he is not faced with any charges. 

PITA and its members highly condemn the detention of innocent civilians who are deprived from their civil and human rights by the Israeli Forces. 

PITA will conduct a series of actions to raise Mr. Masri’s case and calls human rights organizations to interfere in order to release him from the illegal Israeli Administrative detention.

Members are Asked to Submit Articles For PITA E-News

Dear PITA members,

PITA is welling to announce your news, articles, and activities in every issue of PITA’s E-News. Hence you are requested to submit your contributions or suggestions to info@pita-palestine.org

PITA and Paltel sign a memorandum of understanding to enhance the Internet in Palestine

 Recognizing the importance of further developing the Internet in Palestine, PITA and Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) has agreed to enter into strategic cooperation through the signing of a joint initiative aimed at enhancing the resources required for developing Internet services and penetration in Palestine.  The initiative is based on the regulatory environment as provided by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, The cooperation is a step to help reach national objectives of increasing Internet usage by10% of the population in one year.

To achieve the goals of this initiative, PALTEL has voluntarily agreed to refrain from entering the Internet Service Provision business to end users in Palestine, despite being licensed to do so. PALTEL’s role will be to provide all infrastructure and backbone services required by the ISP’s, that are represented by PITA, ISP’s can expect to maximize the benefits from this initiative in order to provide optimal services to their end users at very reasonable prices.  In addition, all existing ISP’s have agreed to refrain from employing any services whether infrastructure, backbone, or access from any telecommunication service provider except from PALTEL, as it is  the sole license by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication.

“This agreement is a vital step towards spreading the power of Internet and improving quality via competition today we are entering anew era said Dr. Mashour Abudaka, Executive Director of PITA’.

The two parties will engage in marketing efforts via strategies to alleviate penetration obstacles such as availability of relevant goods and services such as home PC’s, modems and telephone services.  Both sides will also work to promote Internet awareness and the new prospects the Internet shall bring  to the general development of the population.

According to Mosa’b Khourma, CEO of Paltel “this agreement once implemented will increase competition and improves services” companies will able  to be in compliance with International standards due to new infrastructure added Khourma”.

The private sector in Palestine has relied heavily on the Internet communication and  video conferencing to transact its business between remote locations given the difficult of travel between cities as a result of the on going hostilities.  

The cooperation between Paltel and Pita is a welcome step in improving services towards more efficiency in the  private sector.

PITA Welcome Its new members

1. Universal Modern Technology (Executive Manager: Mr.Rasem Al Jayousi)   Website: http://www.pita-palestine.org/memberdetails.php?mi=75

2. Fadda Tech (General Manager: Mr. Awni Tawil)  Website: http://www.faddatech.com

3. Alquds Network (Executive Manager:  Mr. Nabeel Al-Amad) Website: http://www.alqudsnet.net

Palestinian Hi-Tech Sector Goes Public

 In response to the continued Israeli violations of the Paris Protocols and different trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority, PITA, and in cooperation with the Palestinian Trade Center (Paltrade), The Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Palestinian Cellular Communications Company (Jawwal), will begin implementing a mass media and public relation campaigns in the coming weeks.  These campaigns will be aimed at exposing the Israeli violations of trade agreements, especially those pertaining to restraining IT and telecom equipment at entry ports for no legal reasons, and, consequently, releasing hi-tech equipment essential for the sector development and which has been under seizure for more than a year.   It should be noted that the IT/telecom sector development is being hindered as Palestinian companies have been unable to release imported materials from Israeli ports for more than a year despite all their efforts. 

The planned campaign will be conducted in a collective approach in the form of press releases, press conferences, direct mail and lobbying with international bodies and foreign government representatives, especially those related to the IT and telecommunications sectors.  

For more information and or support, please visit PITA’s Website and or contact us on the below mentioned numbers and email addresses.

E-News Contact Information

Telephone:   02 240 8478

Fax:             02 240 8479

Office Address: 3 Najy Al-Ali Street, El-Bireh, West Bank, Palestine

Postal Address: PO Box 2460, Ramallah, Palestine

Email:          info@pita-palestine.org

Mailing Lists:

board@pita-palestine.org , Board only

members@pita-palestine.org, All Members

staff@pita-palestine.org , All Staff

info@pita-palestine.org, selected members of staff

pita@pita-palestine.org , selected members of staff