Nigel Parry: Bio

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Around the world

Nigel Parry was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1968, and was brought up in Singapore. In his early years, Nigel had the opportunity to travel to Africa, India, and much of the Far East. Throughout his school and university years, he began songwriting and performing live.

Pictured right: Nigel Parry in Tucson, AZ, December 2000. Photo by Suzanne Klotz.

After finishing a BA (Hons) in English and Psychology in London, Nigel accompanied a delegation of educators and trades unionists in August 1989 on a Friends of Birzeit University/World University Service study tour to the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. At this time it was the middle of the first Palestinian Intifada, and this first trip signaled the beginning of an 16-year-long involvement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Voluntary work & human rights

Returning to London, Nigel served a sabbatical year as Student Union president at Roehampton, serving on his college's Board of Governors and the university's Senate, concluding his time at college working regularly with the homeless for six months, before traveling to Hong Kong to work with recovering heroin addicts and Vietnamese refugees for eight months.

Returning again to London, Nigel worked on human rights education and lobbying with the parliamentary unit of a small British charity, Jubilee Campaign, and was one of the editors of its 1992 report, Street Children in the Philippines. The report was one of the key intiatives that ultimately resulted in a change to the law allowing for the prosecution of British nationals for sex tourism' crimes committed against children in the Philippines and other countries.

In early 1993, Nigel took over as coordinator of Friends of Birzeit University (FoBZU), a British charity that supported education at Birzeit University, the Palestinian Harvard or Oxford. His work included writing and producing the FoBZU newsletter, orienting students for Birzeit's international programme, and organising a study tour of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in August/September 1993. In 1994, Nigel was invited by Birzeit University to come to work in its public information office.

Building the Palestinian Internet

Nigel moved to the Palestinian West Bank in September 1994, to work on English-language publications and press releases, international networking, and briefing visiting delegations in Birzeit University 's Public Relations Office. In late 1994, Nigel researched and wrote Making Education Illegal - Students from the Gaza Strip: Israeli restrictions and international reactions, (Human Rights Action Project, Birzeit, January 1995), the first report to look at the plight of Gazan students attempting studying in the West Bank.

In late 1995, Nigel began to create the original website for Birzeit University, developing content and documenting the Israeli army's redeployment from Ramallah. The site was launched in mid-1996 and quickly became a powerful tool for communicating the conflict at ground zero to the world. The site witnessed an increase from 1,000 monthly visits to 24,000 monthly visits in the first year and a half of operation.

Several subsections of the website received significant attention. As well as The Complete Guide to Palestine's Websites, a popular Yahoo.com-type site that reviewed all existing local Palestinian sites, Nigel worked on several pioneering Web-based alternative media projects.

Nigel Parry During the September 1996 Clashes, which saw 88 Palestinians and 16 Israelis killed in several days of violence, Nigel and a team from the university community launched the first ever Web-based alternative media site published by local residents of a conflict zone, offering to thousands of visitors daily reports from On the ground in Ramallah. The following year, the September 1996 Memorial Project, an online collection of stories and photographs of the 88 Palestinians killed, was similarly well received.

Nigel spent some time tracking and promoting Internet development in the Middle East, mostly relating to the Palestinian Web community. In August 1997, Nigel was invited to speak at the United Nations in Geneva about the development of the Palestinian Internet.

Pictured above right: Nigel outside the Palais des Nations, Geneva, August 1997. Photo by John Gee.

Focusing on personal projects

During his time in the West Bank, Nigel's online photojournal, A Personal Diary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, gained attention for its regular reports from on the ground, which offered a unique look at the often harsh realities of the post-Oslo Palestinian landscape. The Diary has been praised by the British Independent, the Israeli Ha'aretz, the French Le Monde, and other international newspapers and magazines, and featured in TIME magazine's end-millenium Visions of the 21st Century online section.

In May 1998, Nigel's home was bulldozed by members of the Palestinian security forces following a dispute with his landlady. After four years living in the West Bank, he decided to take a break and left for the United States to visit family and travel in North America. In the US, Nigel began performing some of the 30+ songs he had written, in small venues around the Twin Cities Metro area of Minnesota.

In 2000, he returned to London for much of the year, working on commercial and non-profit Web design and in early 2001, returned to the US and released his debut CD, This Side of Paradise, a collection of live tracks recorded during his time in the US spanning a decade of songwriting.

Pioneering Middle East-related alternative media

In 2001, Nigel and three fellow writers and activists founded The Electronic Intifada (EI) website, a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 38-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has seen many key milestones.

In 2003, the EI team, together with Voices in the Wilderness, launched the Electronic Iraq (eIraq) project to offer a humanitarian perspective during the then-looming conflict, as the U.S. government made clear its determination to go to war against Iraq.

It was the alternative news moonshot. Before, during, and after the US "Shock & Awe" bombing campaign, eIraq writers from Voices in the Wilderness' Iraq Peace Team reported on what they saw and heard via available Internet and a satellite modem connection. Visitors got a never before seen glimpse of war and its aftermath through the eyes of peace activists based at ground zero.

On 14 June 2003, Nigel Parry and Ali Abunimah accepted the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's "Voices of Peace" Award on behalf of the founders of EI and sister site Electronic Iraq "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet."

In 2005, Nigel relocated to New York City, where he splits his time between web design and Internet consulting through his company nigelparry.net, and writing and music.

Contact Nigel Parry

This page is part of the website of Nigel Parry. All material on this site is ©1995-2001 Nigel Parry. All rights reserved. Unauthorised mirroring of any part of this site is expressly prohibited. For permission to reprint material from this website, contact Nigel Parry.