The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is a terrorist organization specializing in planning and carrying out suicide bombing attacks in Israeli cities. For the past year, sponsored and supported by Iran and Syria , it has operated non-stop to sabotage the lull in the fighting and to escalate the violence in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. Since the beginning of 2005 it has carried out a series of deadly suicide bombing attacks in Tel Aviv, Hadera and Netanya (2 attacks) killing 21 civilians and wounding approximately 160.

The PIJ, like Hamas and other Palestinian and international terrorist organizations, makes extensive use of the Internet, although the technical quality of its sites does not match those of Hamas nor are they as widely accessed. ² As opposed to Hamas, which has broad, international target audiences, and whose sites appear in seven languages, the PIJ focuses exclusively on Palestinian and Arab audiences. The organization's leadership in Damascus uses the Internet to transmit its political and “information” messages to the Palestinian Authority (PA)-administered territories; in our assessment, they also use the medium to transmit instructions to the organization's terrorist-operatives. The PIJ uses its Internet sites to disseminate encouragement for terrorism and hatred , especially since the PA has restricted the organization's use of the official Palestinian media.

There is no fixed number of sites serving the organization and they frequently disappear and reappear in response to pressures exerted on the companies providing Internet services . Sometimes a site reappears with the same name, although its Webhost has been changed, or sometimes it appears under a different name. The PIJ is aware of the pressures brought to bear on such companies , especially in the United States , and to evade them it customarily changes companies (although they still use Webhosts in the United States ).

In December 2005 ⁴ we found that the PIJ, which is on both the American and European Union (EU) lists of terrorist organizations, was operating five leading sites using five different Webhosts, ⁵ two in the United States , ⁶ one in Iran one in Romania and one in Malaysia . They are:

•  www.qudsway.net, Iran ;

•  www.qudsnews.net, the United States ;

•  www.sarayaalquds.org, Malaysia ;

•  www.rabdullah.net, Romania ;

•  www.shikaki.net, the United States .

We also found the names of three individuals listed as “technical help personnel” who operate from Beirut (‘Abdallah Ramadan, Kemal Abu ‘Ayyid and Muhammad Hider) . It is also possible, but still unverified , that like Hamas ⁷, the PIJ operates an Internet infrastructure in Lebanon , directed by the organization's leadership in Damascus

Following is a description of the PIJ's main Internet sites and the names of their Webhosts. We conducted our examination with the aid of the www.whois.net and of www.haganah.org.il , which specializes in monitoring Internet sites of terrorist groups around the world.

Qudsway.net is considered one of the PIJ's official sites. It contains basic information about the organization and updated information about the terrorist attacks, information about its activities, advertisements, and information about and praise for the suicide bombers. It also publishes flyers which glorify terrorism and encourage anti-Israeli terrorism. The site is regularly updated.

The following are the site's main details: ⁸

www. Qudsnews.net is one of the PIJ's main Internet sites. It is relatively new and contains news which is updated regularly, postings by the organization's leaders, pictures of suicide bombers and incitement to acts of terrorism. There are links to other PIJ sites and to its official publications; there is a clickable title called Al-shuhada al-ahya' (“the living shaheeds ”) with pictures of and praise for the shaheeds .

As of December 19, 2005, the site featured an interview with Ziyad al-Nakhleh, the PIJ's second in command, in which he called for the establishment of a “resistance front” (i.e., a united front of all the Palestinian terrorist organizations) which would “lead another round of resistance [i.e., terrorist attacks] to defeat the enemy” (a follow-up of the call by Khaled Mashal, head of the Hamas, not to renew the lull).

“Jerusalem rockets,” a picture appearing on the site on December 19, 2005

The following are the site's main technical details: ¹⁰

This is the official site of the Jerusalem Battalions, the PIJ's terrorist-operative wing. It is one of the organization's leading sites. It contains information about the Jerusalem Battalion's terrorist attacks and incitement to acts of terrorism (taking responsibility for terrorist attacks, for example). It is updated regularly.

The site preaches terrorism and has a clickable title called “jihad in Islamic law,” where various articles provide religious sanction for terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing attacks . For example, there was a posting claiming that “the association of clerics of Palestine ” issued a fatwa (Islamic religious edict), according to which the liberation of Palestinian and Jerusalem and the “return” would only be achieved through “resistance” (i.e., terrorist attacks) and jihad (holy war). Another title contains description of suicide bombing attacks carried out by members of the Jerusalem Battalions to glorify their names and turn them into role models.

A sample page: The Jerusalem Battalions take responsibility for firing
two Qassam rockets at Israeli population centers (December 15, 2005)

The following are the site's main technical details: ¹²

This is the official site of PIJ head Ramadan Shalah, who operates from Damascus . It documents his statements and activities, including speeches, lectures, pictures, etc. It is regularly updated and contains mainly the texts of his lectures, sermons and articles. It has links to the organization's other sites.

In August 2004 it closed down when Level 3, its American Webhost, stopped providing it with Internet services. It has recently begun operating again with a Romanian Webhost.

The following are the site's main technical details: ¹³

The official PIJ Internet site dedicated to the memory of the organization's founded, Fathi Shqaqi, who died in Malta . It documents his activities and statements, and, similar to the site devoted to Ramadan Shalah, is mostly textual. It closed down in August 2994 but recently resumed operations with an American Webhost.

The following are the site's main technical details: ¹⁴