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The Project (by Gregg) In February of this year a project was initiated at Bir Zeit University—a Palestinian university located just outside of the West Bank city of Ramallah—by members of the school's Information Technology Unit. The idea was to establish computer centers in Palestinian refugee camps and to provide Internet access for the camps' residents. The individuals who were the driving force behind getting theproject off the ground were Adam Hanieh and Muna Muhaisen. We read about Adam and Muna and the project#151;known as Across Borders—in a newspaper while in Cairo in early August. According to the article, the project had been launched in earnest just a few days earlier when the first computer center was inaugurated. We were excited to read about this project seeing it as an excellent exampleof how the Internet can be used to empower disempowered individuals and communities.

The first center had been opened at Dheisheh—a camp of about 10,000 people just south of Bethlehem. Not knowing whether it would be possible to travel freely in the West Bank and to visit Dheisheh, we tentatively put it on our list. We wanted to witness first-hand what Across Borders was all about and we wanted to see if there was anything we might be able to do to help. The newspaper article we'd read about the project had little in the way of detailed information.On the web we were able to find much more—Across Borders has an excellent website. We were able to get in touch with Adam—who turned out to be the webmaster for Bir Zeit—via email. He welcomed our enthusiasm and encouraged us to get in touch with him when we arrived in the country. Once we arrived in Israel we learned that we could freely travel within the West Bank and visit the camp. We met Adam in his office at Bir Zeit and arranged to visit Dheisheh at some later date.