Virtual bridge allows strangers in Mideast to seem less strange

July 11, 2011 | Source: New York Times

Facebook.com/yalaYL allows Israelis and Palestinians and other Arabs to connect.

Created by Uri Savir, a former Israeli diplomat, it has 22,500 active users; 60 percent are Arabs — mostly Palestinians, followed by Egyptians, Jordanians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Lebanese and Saudis. The YL in the name stands for young leaders (yala means “let’s go” in Arabic), and Savir said he saw the page as a place where the next generation of regional innovators could meet.