I am sure you have heard about ikbis, the Arabic multimedia sharing website. I have nothing against that site, i personally think it is an amazing growing web application, i browse its content on an almost daily basis, and i wish it all the best.

However, as i was creating a user account on that site today, i was shocked to see that they don’t list Palestine as a country. Instead they listed it as the Palestinian Territories. I am shocked to see this from an Arabian company based in Jordan. As far as i know, Jordan does recognize the state of Palestine, so why doesn’t Ikbis ? Other Jordanian websites (such as Maktoob and Jeeran) do list Palestine as a country, so why not Ikbis ? Are we being disowned by our brothers in Ikbis ? Not long ago, Facebook created a swarm of protesting users after it removed Palestine as a “network” on their sites (which ultimately resulted in reinstating that network), so why is Ikbis afraid ?

I know, i know, Ikbis probably did not mean to make a political statement in this. I bet they also sympathize with the Palestinian plight. Most likely, they made this move so that they can grow their site in peace without worrying about politics. However, come on! this is a very small gesture, and it doesn’t seem to hinder other sites from growing and prospering, even sites with global audiences, so how about sites with an Arab audience ?!

So, dear Ikbis folks, please list Palestine as a country.
I am also interested in seeing what do my dear readers think about this .

Note: In all fairness, i didn’t notify Ikbis about this issue until Qabbani mentioned that below.

By the way, for some reason they missed translating the word “Sex” in the Arabic registration form. What’s wrong in saying جنس after all, that is how it is reported on your passport :-p