The Rise of the Map Geek

Back in May I made some cosmetic changes to this blog to reflect more my life in Ramallah. An explanation of the new look is a little overdue. (If you have subscribed and are reading this in an email format you will have to visit the actual blog page for this to make any sense.)

The new background is an artificially aged satellite picture of Ramallah extracted from Google Earth. My office, from where I'm writing this now, is just above the 'b' in the 'Ramallah Ramblings' title at the top of the page. Just above the 's' in the title is Manara Square, a mini Trafalgar complete with lions, which marks the centre of town and the location of these photos of the World Cup and 'El Clasico' celebrations last year. My apartment is about 3 inches to the south hidden by these words. (Click on the picture to the right for an unobstructed view.)

Other interesting features on the image include the Qalandia checkpoint just visible in the bottom right hand corner. Every Palestinian who wants to get into Jerusalem has to pass through this miserable place. Close by you can also see the Wall snaking around the now defunct Qalandia airport.

Near the top of the page, on the very right hand side, next to the 'About' section, you can see an Israeli settlement. This is Psagot and it is home to 1500 Israelis, living illegally in the occupied West Bank. So entrenched is the apartheid nature of the occupation that even though it is barely two kilometres from my apartment I have never seen, let alone met someone from Psagot.

Besides showing where I live, the background also relates to my work. As most of you know, I deal a lot in maps and satellite imagery. In fact,  I'm fortunate enough to get paid to play around with both in a bid to present the situation in the Occupied Territories in a way that will make people sit-up, take notice and maybe, just maybe, take action. The result is a collection of multimedia tools called Virtual Field Visits. These are 3D tours recorded in Google Earth which present the different ways Palestinians are adversely affected by the Occupation - from having their house surrounded by a concrete wall to being shot for fishing a little too far off shore.

The two best Virtual Field Visits have been recorded as videos and are now up on YouTube. This means I can embed them here. (Be advised that there is a naff narration by some idiot book-at-bedtime wannabee so you might want to hit the mute button.)

A recent addition to these tools is an Interactive Map, featured in my last post, which displays the recent escalation in violent attacks by Israeli settlers as well as some other aspects of the occupation in the West Bank.

But what about the crazy people who pay me to do all this messing about with maps and Google Earth? In this respect, I've landed right on my feet. Al-Haq, is not just another human rights NGO, set up to mine the rich seam of Western donor aid that has flooded into the West Bank since the Oslo Accords. The organisation was founded back in 1979 by three Palestinian lawyers who wanted to find a way to use international law to provide an alternative form of resistance to Israel's pernicious occupation. Back then it was the first organisation of its kind in the entire Arab world and some say it is now the pre-eminent human rights organisation in the region.

Al-Haq is greatly respected across both the Palestinian and international legal and human rights communities for the accuracy and integrity of its monitoring and documentation as well their impeccable legal analysis and brave advocacy. Unfortunately this does not stop certain parties from painting us as the enemy and attempting to delegitimise Al-Haq by, for instance, banning the General Director from leaving the West Bank or delivering scathing and libelous reports to our donors demanding that they stop their funding.

Like all NGOs, Al-Haq has its flaws, but that is the subject for another time. For now, it is enough to say that it is cool to work for an organisation that has not been airdropped in by an external actor with their own interests but is actually rooted in Palestinian society and is staffed by people committed to a cause. It is rare indeed to find a job which you both enjoy and of which you can be proud and I consider myself immensely fortunate. Now, if only I could find someone else to do those damn narrations I would be set.