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Methodology
AI generated — pending PIPD review. This copy was drafted automatically during the platform migration and has not yet been reviewed by PIPD's editorial team. The myth/answer content below it is unaffected — that remains PIPD-authored and reviewed as always.
How matching works
PaliAnswers never generates the text you read. Every visible answer is written and
approved by PIPD's editorial team ahead of time and stored verbatim in the tool's corpus;
searching only decides *which* pre-written answer to show you, never *what* the answer
should say.
A search runs through up to four stages, in order, stopping as soon as one produces a
confident answer:
- **Keyword and phrase matching** against the exact wording of each myth's claim and its
known variations.
- **Semantic matching** — understanding what you meant even if you phrased it
differently from how the myth is written in the library.
- When retrieval is ambiguous, a language model re-ranks the closest candidates purely to
decide *which already-written myth* you most likely meant — it is never shown your
search in order to write new text, only to route you to the right existing one.
- If nothing in the library covers your search, a final check distinguishes a general
knowledge question (sent to a "we don't have this yet" state) from a genuine gap in the
corpus (logged so the editorial team can see what's missing).
Who writes the answers
Every claim, answer, and citation in the corpus is authored and reviewed by PIPD's
editorial team before it ever becomes searchable. Sources are cited inline with each
answer — see the Sources page for how citations are chosen and presented.
Corrections
If you believe an answer is inaccurate, outdated, or missing an important source, please
contact PIPD through Communicating Palestine (communicatingpalestine.org). Corrections go
through the same editorial review as new content before publishing.
Privacy
PaliAnswers does not use third-party trackers and does not ask you to create an account.
Anonymous, rotating session identifiers are used only to understand usage patterns (which
searches find an answer, which don't) and are not tied to any personal identity. Raw
search text is retained for 90 days and then removed, keeping only anonymous counts.
*This page currently describes the tool's general approach. Some of the technical detail
above is being updated as PaliAnswers moves to new infrastructure — the editorial and
privacy commitments described here are unaffected by that move.*