A ground-breaking online educational and media site has seen 3 million visitors learn about Palestine this year, with more than 10,000 users using the tool to create their own videos.
Palestine Remix, launched by Al Jazeera in December 2014, is an interactive project combining maps, quizzes, a timeline, and, most distinctively, a ‘remix’ tool that allows users to search interactive transcripts of documentaries, and extract relevant clips to make their own video.
Since going online a year ago, Palestine Remix has gone from strength to strength, including a second phase launch last month. On December 16, there was a group ‘remixing’ activity held in the Gaza Strip, where some 200 Palestinian youth built remixes in different languages – despite problems with power cuts.
According to Al Jazeera commissioning senior producer Rawan Damen, who has overseen the project from its inception, there are plans to introduce Palestine Remix into British educational institutions in 2016, as a complement to existing courses.
The core element of Palestine Remix is an archive of 28 documentaries on Palestine-related issues such as the Apartheid Wall, the Nakba, Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian tourism industry, the Gaza blockade, hunger strikes, home demolitions, the First Intifada, Shin Bet, and more.
Thanks to open source tool Hyperaudio, visitors to the site can search transcript-synced videos of the documentaries, then “drag paragraphs from one or more sources to create a transcript-synced video remix that you can play, add effects, and share.”
Users can experience Palestine Remix in four languages: English, Arabic, Bosnian, and Turkish.
In addition to the documentaries and ‘remix’ feature, the site includes drone footage from Palestine, interactive maps, a glossary, and quizzes.
The site also features a ‘Destroyed Villages’ section, providing detailed information on more than 500 Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed and destroyed by Israel in the 1948 Nakba.
The Palestine Remix team is working with communities of Palestinian refugees, to see the site become a focal point for information and discussions about these places.
Palestine Remix has already won industryrecognition, including at The Drum’s Online Media Awards, from the Arab Thought Foundation, and at The Webby Awards.
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