RAMALLAH, Palestine — A nationwide movement to block porn websites is underway by university students in Palestine.
The campaign is being launched in the city of Nablus in an effort to stem what a recent study claims is having a dramatic effect on the stability of families and the key reason for mounting divorce rates and “negative consequences on domestic lives.”
Students at Al Najah National University are reportedly demanding the ban on porn sites that they say violates the West Bank's customs and traditions.
Campaign organizer Nader Abu Farhah told GulfNews.com that the Palestinian territories are the sixth largest browsers of porn in the world, causing alarm to the Palestinian government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
“The campaign is based on serious and unstoppable attempts to convince the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology to block porn websites in Palestine,” Farhah said.
“The campaign also aims at raising public awareness about the fatal psychological and mental dangers of such sites. Despite those negative consequences, huge numbers of Palestinians browse such sites with no control at all.”
Sources at the Palestinian Higher Sharia Judicial Council said that numeorus Palestinian couples have divorced because of one partner browsing porn sites. The activists are calling for an immediate block on porn sites and warned officials that they would take to the streets if their demands are not met. The students said that sources within the PNA confirmed that they could unilaterally and without consultation with Israel shutter all porn sites in the region.
“This needs a ministerial decision only and then it will be implemented instantly. Even companies that provide the Internet in Palestine can block the porn sites without referring to the ministry. The only hindrance is that companies which block the porn sties lose market share,” the PNA sources said.