Illustrative: Palestinian entrepreneurs brainstorm ideas as they compete for acceptance in the third version of Mobaderoon project, hosted by the Islamic University's Business and Technology Incubator in Gaza City on November 24, 2015. (Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)
A senior official in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has expressed concern about increased internet use in the coastal enclave, opining that Facebook was the source of marital disputes and divorce.
In 2015, there were 86,265 internet subscribers in the Gaza Strip, compared to 66,153 a year earlier (a 30.4% increase).
There are roughly 1.8 million people living in the Gaza Strip.
Hassan Al Jojo, head of the Sharia Supreme Council and Higher Sharia Court, linked the rise in social media use to divorce, even though Gaza’s divorce rates dipped by some 2% in 2015 (from 17.9% to 15.8%).
A Palestinian girl looks at wedding dresses at a shop in Gaza City on April 5, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS)
“Scores of divorce cases have been registered in (the) Gaza Strip for misusing and overusing Facebook and other social networks by either the man or the woman,” Al Jojo said, according to Gulf News. “Social media is a double-edged sword that affects Gaza just the way it does affect the rest of the world especially when it is misused or overused.”
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In outlining the concerns in Gaza over the new phenomenon, the report cited a study by Gaza psychologists that “stressed that the availability of the internet everywhere in (the) Gaza Strip paves the way for the electronic addiction.”
Meanwhile Al Jojo also said that marriage rates went up in the past year. Despite the enclave’s economic woes, some 20,778 Gaza couples tied the knot in 2015, compared to 16,128 in 2014 — a 28% increase, Al Jojo said.
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