Geographers Mobilize: a Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah1

Geographers Mobilize: A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah1

Mark de Socio Department of Geography and Geosciences, Salisbury University, 1101 Camden Avenue, Salisbury, MD 21804 U.S.A. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021

In summer 2006, Professor Ghazi-Walid Falah, a Mots-clés : réseaux sociaux, échelles, géogra- political geographer and editor-in-chief of the phie politique, Internet journal Arab World Geographer, was arrested by Israeli police after taking photographs of rural landscapes in Northern Galilee. Falah was Introduction subsequently held for 23 days, incommunicado, Kirby (1992, 236) defines geography as and without charge. An international campaign what “geographers choose to do.” Ghazi- to “Free Ghazi” was launched by his family, Walid Falah (2007, 588) demonstrates that friends, and colleagues, largely over academic what geographers choose to do can, at times, listservs and other media. Utilizing social be dangerous. Falah, for example, chose to network analysis and contextualizing the campaign within structures of telecommunica- research and write on the political geogra- tions technologies, the purpose of this paper is to phy of Palestine and Israel, beginning with assess the various factors that contributed to the his dissertation 25 years ago (Falah 1983). campaign’s coalescence, its rapid development, According to Falah, this career program of and its global reach. research runs counter to the hegemonic discourse—historical, political, or other- Key words: social networks, scale, political wise—concerning the geographies of geography, Internet Palestine and Israel (see, e.g., Falah 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2004). Durant l’été 2006, le professeur Ghazi-Walid Consequently, Falah found himself under Falah, géographe travaillant dans le domaine de suspicion by the Israeli government as both a la géographie politique et rédacteur en chef du Géographe du Monde arabe, fut arrêté par la Palestinian and as a “rogue” scholar of polit- police israélienne après avoir pris des photos de ical geography writing of the contested terri- paysages ruraux en Galilée septentrionale. tories of Palestine/Israel within the broad Falah fut ensuite gardé au secret pendant 23 framework of critical geopolitics (Morrissey jours sans inculpation. Une campagne interna- 2006). In July 2006, several days prior to the tionale pour « Libérer Ghazi » fut lancée par sa outbreak of war between Israel and famille, ses amis et ses collègues, se servant de Hezbollah in Lebanon, Professor Falah was listes de diffusion universitaires et d’autres arrested in Northern Galilee, accused of médias. Grâce à l’analyse des réseaux sociaux spying for various entities,2 and held incom- et en contextualisant cette campagne dans le municado for 23 days without charge cadre des structures des technologies de télé- (Gravois 2007a). In a recent interview with communication, l’article examine les divers facteurs qui ont contribué à la mise en forme de Falah in the Chronicle of Higher Education, l’action, à son développement rapide et à sa reporter John Gravois writes, projection mondiale. Editorial Note: This article was originally published in Antipode Vol. 42 No. 2 (2010), pp. 310-335. It is reproduced here, with minor modifications, by permission from the copyright holder.

Looking back, Mr. Falah believes that his schol- within days. The purpose of this paper is to arly record—far from protecting him—only assess the various factors that contributed to fueled the suspicions that surrounded him [when the campaign’s coalescence, its rapid devel- he was arrested]. Once the interrogation began, opment, and its global reach. he says, his entire career was turned against him, The paper proceeds by situating the Free his scholarship on the contested landscape of Ghazi campaign within three separate Israel; his network of colleagues in the Arab world; and his longstanding rivalries with power- bodies of literature (Sections 2, 3, and 4) that ful figures in Israeli academe. (Gravois 2007a, are not generally related. The nature of 1–2) Falah’s detention and that of the campaign for his release bring together these variant Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 In a guest editorial in the journal Society topics that comprise widely different sets of and Space, Falah adds, “I was arrested … issues. Section 2 reviews literature concern- because I [am] Ghazi-Walid Falah … a ing telecommunications technologies with scholar who has consistently refused to the aim of exploring two broad themes. adhere to writing the geography of Specifically, this includes literature Israel/Palestine as defined by the Israeli concerning the software ListServ and the geography guild. I was arrested for my nature of the physical construction of the scholarship—seized in the very topography Internet. Both shape the nature of how infor- of what I study” (Falah 2007, 589). mation disseminates among interconnected The response among geographers and networks of geographers, scholars of other scholars to Falah’s arrest was quick and vast. academic disciplines, and community Within hours of Falah’s arrest, an activists. Additionally, the uneven develop- international campaign to “Free Ghazi” ment of cyberspace (the “digital divide”) was launched by his family, friends, and places constraints on the flow of informa- colleagues. This campaign consisted of an e- tion, which in turn limits the “spaces of mail and letter-writing effort to pressure the engagement” (Cox 1998) to particular geog- government of Israel to either officially raphies. The second theme of the technology charge Falah or release him. In addition to e- literature concerns the Internet as a site for mail and letter-writing, a media campaign political activism and counter-hegemonic ensued. Geographers and other scholars and discourse. activists wrote letters to the editors of Section 3 considers literature regarding numerous newspapers around the world, networks and how individuals mobilize conducted interviews on radio, and others on behalf of a social cause or concern. contributed articles to newspapers and The paper draws on social network analysis activist Web sites. The campaign culminated to demonstrate how the networks employed with the establishment of an online petition. in the Free Ghazi campaign were mobilized Scholars, activists, and concerned citizens by key actors that enjoy a high degree of were encouraged through a range of profes- centrality in the particular networks with sional e-mail listservs and Web sites to write which they are embedded, such as academic to officials of numerous governments and to disciplines and sub-disciplines. Centrality in sign the online petition. this case does not equate with degree of What is remarkable about the Free connectivity, at least in the traditional sense, Ghazi campaign was the speed of its devel- as the literature on the nature of ListServ and opment and the reach of its efforts. Despite a the Internet will demonstrate. Rather, gag order and media blackout imposed by centrality in this case is a consequence of the state, news of Falah’s arrest whipped scholarship activity over a period of several around the globe in a matter of hours, and the years, including presenting research at campaign for his release was launched academic conferences and publishing

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah 197 articles in highly regarded peer-reviewed activity—for doing geography—makes the journals. Hanson (2000, 757), for example, experience even more immediate. writes, Section 5 presents the various forms of data collected to document the breadth and Networking … takes place every time one depth of the Free Ghazi campaign, the speed speaks at a professional meeting, submits a of its diffusion, and the methodology paper to a journal, reviews … a manuscript for a employed in the analysis of the Free Ghazi journal, publishes a book or an article, teaches a campaign, namely a qualitative network- course, serves on a committee, or posts a diffusion analysis. Section 6 chronicles the message on a listserv. Free Ghazi campaign from a social network Perhaps the most overlooked—and often the Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 most powerful—venue for networking is perspective, Section 7 summarizes the publishing, a way to connect not only with analysis, and Section 8 provides concluding distant colleagues from around the globe but remarks. also with people working on different but related problems. Network Topology, the Internet, and ListServ From this standpoint, clearly the more one publishes articles in peer-reviewed jour- In the late 1950s and early 1960s, computer nals, publishes a book, presents at academic scientists and engineers at the Advanced conferences, and otherwise engages with the Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the discipline in a myriad of ways that is consis- U.S. Department of Defense were tasked tent with research and scholarship, the larger with improving the U.S. military’s commu- one’s network of colleagues and peers nications and defence technologies, largely becomes, and the more “central” one is in in response to Soviet successes in missile the network. and satellite technologies (Hafner and Lyon Section 4 considers the Free Ghazi 1996). Meanwhile, in a contract with the campaign within the framework of scale as U.S. Air Force, the RAND Corporation was lived experience. Masuda and Crooks (2007, charged with developing a network commu- 257–58) note that an experiential approach nications topology that would allow several to scale privileges human agency and the communications systems separated by long human body in their intimate encounters distances to interact with each other (Baran with extra-local structures, like governments 1964). A technology that eventually and economies. What greater intimacy is emerged from these two thrusts of research there between the extra-local (in this case, was “packet-switching” in which digital the State of Israel) and the human body (in information is broken up into bundles (or this case, the person of Ghazi-Walid Falah) “packets”) and transmitted from one point, than the state’s incarceration and torture3 of or computer, to another (Hafner and Lyon the body and mind? Further, a community of 1996, 59–60; Grubesic, O’Kelly, and geographers and scholars was affected in an Murray 2003, 54). If a link in the routing experiential way; a known and respected structure is slowed, blocked, or destroyed, colleague had been arrested and held with- the data would be sent on to its final destina- out charge for 23 days. The unimaginable tion via the next available shortest route, spectre of Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, the where it waits to be joined with remaining “War on Terror,” and rendition had, in a incoming packets containing the rest of the personal way, touched the community of data, which are then combined and the infor- geographers and scholars of Middle Eastern mation “re-constructed” at its final destina- studies. The probability that Falah was tion. This process is essentially how e-mail targeted because of his scholarship works and is the infrastructural foundation

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) 198 Mark de Socio of the Internet (Hafner and Lyon 1996). specialty groups have a ListServ-based The successful implementation of this Internet discussion group of their own in network system, dubbed ARPANet, and which to share information and ideas among further modifications of network technolo- subscribed members. As these specialty gies, spurred other institutions to develop groups demonstrate, the organizing princi- networks of their own, such as the “Because ple of ListServ-based discussion groups is It’s Time Network” (BITNET), the National that of community membership based on Science Foundation Network (NSFNet), and common interests rather than geographical others. Further modifications facilitated the location. Hyman (2003, 19) refers to such ability to link these disparate networks, ListServ-based communities as “virtual trib- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 creating networks of networks that eventu- alism.” However, these scholarly Internet ally morphed into the modern Internet. communities are not closed, as the metaphor BITNET, which emerged in the mid- of virtual tribalism might suggest. Rather, 1980s, developed a method for simultaneous members of one scholarly discussion group communication with large groups of people are very likely members of any number of irrespective of their location. Their method other scholarly discussion groups, forming became known by its software, “ListServ.” linkages or “interlocks” between multiple The concept was a simple one based on the discussion groups. These interlocks among marketing tool of distribution lists in which discussion groups are unlike interlocks a group of e-mails are collected into a list among other organizations, such as boards that are included in a single collective e-mail of directors of various corporations and address that the software ListServ reads as civic organizations. Whereas interlocking something like “send this message to all directorates are comprised of business and emails on the list” (Hyman 2003, 19). social leaders—and by invitation only, based ListServ became a popular tool for academ- on the significant resources individual lead- ics of particular fields and interests, and ers bring to the corporation or organization scholarly electronic forums using the soft- (de Socio 2007, 2009)—interlocking discus- ware proliferated across universities and sion groups are created by the rank-and-file academic disciplines in the 1980s and members themselves, who are simply 1990s. Such forums allow for quick dissem- following their own intellectual interests. ination of information on the one hand, and There is, conceivably, no limit to the number exchanges of ideas among multiple of discussion groups interlocked by members on the other. Although BITNET subscribers. disappeared by the mid-1990s, ListServ and Many writers and academics have ListServ-based discussion groups remain heralded the proliferation of ListServ-based popular today and, indeed, are essential discussion groups and the Internet as egali- aspects of academic life (Hyman 2003, 18). tarian in nature, as “great equalizers” allow- Whole communities of scholars and ing for a wide range of voices and discourses hobbyists have developed around ListServ- to be promulgated and new identities formu- based discussion groups, and geographers lated, despite the hegemonic origins of the are no exception. The Association of Internet itself as a network linking research American Geographers (AAG), the premier institutions under contract with the U.S. organization of scholars and professional Department of Defense and as a way to practitioners of geography in the U.S.A., improve command-and-control systems of contains 59 sub-organizations, or specialty the U.S. military (Hyman 2003; Adams groups, representing multiple specializa- 1998, 100; Johnson-Eilola and Selber 1996; tions and interests contained within the Warf and Grimes 1997; O’Lear 1997). The discipline of geography. Most of these openness of the Internet, however, inevitably

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah 199 tends to draw in and reproduce perspectives Social Network Analysis and opinions that pervade wider society, including racism, sexism, and a host of other Rather than viewing the actions of individu- “unpalatable” ideologies (Warf and Grimes als as autonomous, driven, for example, by 1997, 260). This online reproduction and one’s personal attributes, the perspective of reinforcement of wider social and power social network analysis views the actions of relations thus distorts and constrains notions individuals as “arising out of structural or of the Internet as emancipatory and/or egali- relational processes” and therefore focuses tarian. Additionally, state policing efforts of inquiry into “properties of the relational online activities tend to suppress political system” (Wasserman and Faust 1994, 7–8). Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 activism, as seen in China (Hadlock 2005) The Internet and ListServ-based discussion and Vietnam (Surborg 2008). Nevertheless, groups represent one such relational system, all sorts of counterhegemonic discourses, as do memberships in the AAG, specialty including left-wing and right-wing, have groups of the AAG, and other scholarly found the Internet to be a useful medium for organizations. Publishing articles in peer- promoting their views and encouraging reviewed journals is another form of rela- discussions and networking among like- tional system, connecting the author with minded individuals and groups (Warf and readers and with other authors through cita- Grimes 1997). tions and references. It is important to note that the spaces of Within social network analysis, several counterhegemonic discourse and political levels of analyses are embedded. Networks resistance, or spaces at the “margins” that can be analyzed at the level of nodes are not fully integrated into contemporary (comprised of entities such as individual power structures (Steinberg 1994, 462)— people, firms, or countries), groups (e.g., spaces that the Internet embodies—are industry or other sectors), or at the level of limited to areas where the physical infra- an entire network system. Two important structure of the Internet is present. Miller concepts in network analysis are centrality (1994) demonstrates how “local opportunity and density. Degree of centrality indicates a structures,” which in the case of the Free node’s overall positionality in a network of Ghazi campaign include infrastructure and interconnected entities and is measured as technologies like the Internet and ListServ- the total number of ties a node has with other based discussion groups, contribute to the entities in the network. Entities with a low shape and form that political resistance number of ties are considered to be marginal takes. As these technologies diffuse globally, within the network in which they belong. new spaces arise for political mobilization The higher the number of ties, the more and counterhegemonic discourses (Adams important an entity is by virtue of its 1996; O’Lear 1997; Staeheli et al. 2002), connectedness with other entities in the even to the point of undermining state network. By being more central in the control of information (Froehling 1997; network, an entity is regarded as more influ- Adams 1996). As will be shown in the ential because information can easily pass following sections, the Free Ghazi campaign from it to many other entities in the network. took on a particular geographical structure Density is a ratio of the number of actual ties that was both enhanced and constrained by within a network and the sum of all possible telecommunications technologies, namely ties, and takes on a value between 0 and 1; that of the Internet and ListServ-based the closer to 1, the more dense the network. discussion groups. Research in organizational network theory and community power studies utilizing interlocking directorates demonstrate

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) 200 Mark de Socio the utility of social network analysis in have the highest number of links to other uncovering central actors and power rela- actors in the network and are therefore the tions among groups of interconnected indi- most “visible” (Wasserman and Faust 1994, viduals, firms, and economic sectors. For 172). These actors are the “most involved” example, banking and financial firms have (Wasserman and Faust 1994, 173). been found to enjoy a high degree of connec- Similarly, to be visible in academics gener- tivity, or “centrality,” within networks of ally means publishing research in peer- corporations, particularly among manufac- reviewed journals, particularly in journals turing firms in financial distress (Mintz and with high “visibility”—those that enjoy the Schwartz 1985, 1983; Mizruchi and Stearns greatest number of citations in published Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 1988; Lang and Lockhart 1990). Addition- research papers within and across academic ally, interlocking directorates appear to be disciplines (Hanson 2000; Levia and an effective conduit for knowledge and Underwood 2004; Quiring 2007). information dissemination among inter- Falah has published more than 40 peer- locked firms. In a study of mergers and reviewed articles spanning 20 separate acquisitions, for example, Haunschild English-language academic journals (1993) found that firms tend to more closely throughout his 25-year career as a profes- imitate other firms with which they share sional geographer. Table 1 lists academic interlocking directorates. A firm appeared journals that publish articles related to polit- more likely to engage in merger and acquisi- ical geography, Middle Eastern studies, and tion activities when one or more of its direc- related sub-disciplines and the number of tors or executives served as a director in articles these particular journals published another firm that had previously been that were authored and/or co-authored by involved in a merger or acquisition. Falah. Falah clearly enjoys visibility, or Geletkanycz and Hambrick (1997), mean- “centrality,” in the sub-disciplines of Middle while, found that firms tend to conform to Eastern studies and political geography by wider industry trends relative to the degree virtue of his record of scholarship. with which they are interlocked with other Additionally, Falah has presented research at firms in their sector. a number of academic conferences interna- In social network terminology, inter- tionally, consistently at annual AAG confer- locking directorates are “shared events”— ences, a conference on America in the the event is sitting on a board of directors. Middle East / The Middle East in America at The Free Ghazi campaign also represents a the American University of Beirut (2005), network system in which actors are linked to the Beirut Conference on Public Spheres each other by events—in this case, shared (2005), the Gulf First Urban Planning and memberships in professional organizations, Development Conference and Exhibition in ListServ-based discussion groups, or other Kuwait (2004), and the Second International such organizations (see Wasserman and Congress of the Geographers of the Islamic Faust 1994, 291–92). Actors in the Free World, held in Tehran (2003), to highlight Ghazi campaign are also linked via the just a recent few. Thus Falah’s network of nature of academic work; that is, by engag- colleagues extends internationally. ing with or having published research in a Falah’s visibility undoubtedly played a particular set of interrelated academic jour- role in the speed and reach of the Free Ghazi nals of sub-disciplines, namely political campaign; many academics spanning disci- geography, geopolitics, critical geopolitics, plines surely recognized Falah’s name and and Middle Eastern studies (Table 1). Actors were familiar with his work. This is not to considered the most “central” or prestigious say that a neophyte scholar—like this author, in such affiliation networks are those that perhaps—if found to be in an equally

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah 201

TABLE 1 English-language academic journals in which Falah has published that publish articles related to political geography, Middle Eastern studies, and related sub-disciplines (in alpha- betical order)

Journals No. of articles authored by Falah Annals of the Association of American Geographer 2 Antipode 2

Arab World Geographer 6 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Area 2 Canadian Geographer 2 Environment and Planning A 1 Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 1 Geoforum 2 GeoJournal 5 Journal of Geography in Higher Education 1 Journal of Historical Geography 1 Journal of Palestine Studies 3 Political Geography 5 Professional Geographer 1 Progress in Human Geography 1 Third World Quarterly 4 Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geograﬁe 1 Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 1 Urban Geography 2 Urban Studies 2

Total 45

dreadful situation would not garner a similar research project and/or publication; inter- response among colleagues. At least one can acted in some way with Falah in his capacity hope. However, it will be clear that several as editor-in-chief of the journal The Arab actors were key to the rapid growth and World Geographer (AWG); or served with success of the Free Ghazi campaign, and that Falah on an editorial board other than AWG. these actors, who themselves enjoy a rela- This point should serve as a reminder of the tively high degree of visibility in the areas of importance of social networks in everyday political geography, geopolitics, and/or (professional) life that Hanson (2000) so Middle Eastern studies, were particularly elegantly enunciated. close (or “adjacent,” in social network Finally, the closeness of the actors terminology) to Falah in several ways: as a involved in the Free Ghazi campaign with former or current colleague of Falah work- Falah himself also demonstrates the utility ing in the same department as he; as co- of perceiving scale as lived experience. It is author with Falah in a current or previous to this point the paper now turns.

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) 202 Mark de Socio

Scale as Lived Experience politics in pursuit of redress, in essence “jumping scales.” In each of the case studies The concept of scale has undergone a great reviewed by Cox (1998), networks were deal of scrutiny and debate over the past 20 essential to both “jumping” scales and years (see, e.g., Paasi 2004; Marston, Jones, “coming down” in scale to engage with local and Woodward 2005; Jonas 2006; Leitner communities (see, e.g., Cox and Wood 1997; and Miller 2007). This debate has been a Miller 1994). healthy exercise for geographers and others; This reworking of scale as relational it has led to a deeper understanding of the implies spatial interaction in a way that nuances of what was once considered to be a scale-as-levels does not by privileging Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 straightforward concept of scalar hierar- nodes, including the human body, in relation chies, depicted as “levels” (or “sizes”) rang- to other nodes, whether other bodies or insti- ing from top to bottom: global, national, tutions, including extra-local institutions regional, local, neighbourhood, household, (Masuda and Crooks 2007). Gieseking individual (Delaney and Leitner 1997, 93; (2007, 281), for example, demonstrates how Marston et al. 2005, 420). Particular spatial women on university campuses have used processes were seen as inherent to particular their bodies “to negotiate the campus,” “levels.” For example, foreign policy was including dressing in ways that challenged seen as conducted at the level of “global,” campus attire regulations or studying and suburbanization was seen as a phenomenon excelling in academic disciplines that were occurring at the “regional” scale, and so on. deemed by wider society as off-limits to Scale has since come to be seen as socially women. Staeheli and Thompson (1997) constructed (Paasi 2004). Agnew (1997), for demonstrate how a marginalized group example, demonstrates how in the 1990s the of “countercultural” youth in Boulder, emerging Italian political party, the Colorado, challenged redevelopment efforts Northern League, defined itself as a region- of their favorite space for socializing, an ally based political party opposed to the area near the University of Colorado known “national” scale of politics in Italy that, in as “The Hill.” These youth used their very the view of the Northern League, had come presence, their bodies, in addition to imple- to privilege the Mezzogiorno region of ments like spray paint cans, to fight against southern Italy. Miller (1994), meanwhile, an effort aimed at their physical displace- demonstrates how anti-nuclear activists in ment that included extra-local4 institutions Worcester, Massachusetts, consciously like the Boulder Police and the city govern- sought to create a local “nuclear-free zone” ment. and ban nuclear-related research and other Telecommunications technologies also activities. This “from below” strategy forced have implications for scale. Adams (1996), extra-local actors like Raytheon and other for example, demonstrates that communica- defence contractors with local operations to tions technologies—built in ways that “come down” in scale and engage with the primarily solidify and centralize capitalist local community in a concerted effort to power (Adams 1996, 420)—can be “piggy- defeat the proposed ban on nuclear-related backed” or otherwise utilized by subordi- activities, a “local” ban that, if enacted, nated groups for purposes of escaping the would have much wider impacts on corpo- confines of political and physical space in rate operations. Conversely, Cox (1998, 1–2) order to petition their cause to wider audi- demonstrates how local actors blocked by ences. Adams shows how the pro-democracy local authorities are able to circumvent the protesters of Tiananmen Square in 1989 “local” scale and engage with the utilized the global media spectacle of Soviet “regional,” “national,” or “global” level of premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s historic visit

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah 203 to China to stage their protest and appeal for transcend space and scale-as-“levels” (see, global support on the one hand and for the e.g., Tretter 2008; Wood 2005). exertion of external pressure on the Chinese In academics, networks are no less government for democratic reforms on the about trust and reliability (Liebeskind and other, reforms that Gorbachev himself Oliver 2000). Academic networks develop embodied in his push for perestroika and as a result of scholarship activities built glasnost in the Soviet Union. Similarly, the upon shared intellectual curiosity and inter- Civil Rights movement in the United States ests, and are embodied by shared member- relied on the television media to cover the ships in professional academic violent reprisals of Bull Connor, the police organizations like the AAG, shared partici- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 chief of Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s pation in sub-fields embodied, for example, in order to garner the sympathies of citizens in the AAG specialty groups, and through in the U.S.A. and around the world (Adams such mediums as publishing books, publish- 1996). Additionally, the telephone was ing research papers in peer-reviewed jour- utilized by Civil Rights leaders across the nals, attending conferences, and the like country to share information and keep each (Hanson 2000). Electronic media have other apprised of successful strategies and of allowed such networks to expand to include news of significant events. Tiananmen shared memberships in ListServ-based Square and the Civil Rights movement both scholarly discussion groups, and through e- demonstrate how individual people were mail communications. Spatially, such able to use their bodies in interaction with networks can (and do) span the globe, but particular telecommunications technologies are limited to places where such media infra- to “jump scales” and disseminate informa- structure is in place. Other constraints like tion past official “gatekeepers” and at the language barriers and academic hegemony same time appeal to wider audiences for place further limits on the reach of such moral, if not material, support (see D’Arcus networks. (2006) for further case studies and a more The campaign to Free Ghazi arose out fuller exploration of the interactions and of just this sort of pre-existing network. relations between bodies (nodes), media and Interaction among colleagues in academic states, and their implications for the politics networks like the one described above is of scale). experiential in nature. However, the arrest In a relational approach to globaliza- and detention of Falah represents a different tion, Yeung (1997, 2005) demonstrates how sort of “experience,” but it was nevertheless foreign direct investments are facilitated an experiential event for the network as a through business and familial networks. whole, particularly among those most adja- Specific persons (nodes) comprise such cent to Falah himself. The paper now turns to networks, and these networks, similar to an assessment of this particular experience, urban political coalitions, are built on inti- the arrest and detention of Ghazi-Walid macy, or “trust,” among the persons Falah, and the network’s response. comprising the network (Yeung 1997, 2005; Stone 1989; Wood 1993). “Trust” implies Data and Methodology experience and is developed after a period of trials (see Tuan 1977, 9). Thus, when we say Much of the data collected for this study is that scale is relational, we are also saying primary; Professor Falah generously shared that scale is experiential. In urban politics, e-mail correspondence between family trust is seen as the basis of regime coalitions members and colleagues as they worked and economic development networks (Stone together towards developing and sustaining 1989; Wood 1993), whose networks often the Free Ghazi campaign. In addition, an

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) 204 Mark de Socio online petition established just days before it the collection of such data. The nature of was to be presented at a scheduled court hear- ListServ-based discussion groups is such ing for Falah garnered more than 1 500 indi- that all members are connected to each other. vidual signatures, of which 1 190 were No members enjoy “centrality” in such a scholars who listed a university affiliation. schema. Further, any decision on the part of This petition presents a chronology of signa- individuals to act in response to news posted tures and locational data (listed university on several ListServ-based discussion groups affiliations). Other data sources include was purely voluntary and, in most cases, announcements on ListServ-based discussion anonymous; that is, individuals most often forums and correspondence among members wrote letters to officials and newspaper Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 of specialty groups of the AAG, members of editors independently and without announc- the Middle Eastern Studies Association ing such action in the ListServ-based discus- (MESA), and other academic organizations, sion groups. disciplines, and sub-disciplines. Finally, the Given these constraints, a more qualita- majority of scholars identified as members of tive approach is justified in lieu of tradi- the wider professional network of Ghazi- tional quantitative social network analysis. Walid Falah generously provided up-to-date The available data allow for mapping the curricula vitae outlining co-publications, co- chronology of events and of the Free Ghazi editorships, and so on. Secondary data campaign, and key individuals—the actors sources include news accounts, articles, most central to the Free Ghazi campaign— blogs, and interviews on television and radio emerge from such an approach, as does the written or performed by geographers in an nature of relations among various actors effort to publicize Falah’s plight. within the Free Ghazi campaign. Finally, the As with any social network analysis, online petition encompassing 1 190 signa- among the first problems to overcome is to tures with university affiliations provides a identify the network and to limit its extent good indication of the extent of the for analysis (Wasserman and Faust 1994, campaign’s reach. Indeed, all individuals 292–93). The nature of academic networks (though limited) who are identified as presents a particular problem for analyzing having played some role in the Free Ghazi the Free Ghazi campaign. First, interlocking campaign—from initial organization of the discussion groups, academic affiliations, campaign to independently writing letters and the like are consummated by the rank- and articles or conducting interviews—are and-file members based entirely on their known to have also signed the petition. own interests. Consequently, there is, conceivably, no limit to the number of “We all know Ghazi”: The Campaign to discussion groups and affiliations inter- Free Ghazi-Walid Falah locked by rank-and-file members. Second, the usual measurements for social network Events that led to the Free Ghazi campaign analyses, such as degree centrality, between- began on 8 July 2006 when Professor Falah, ness centrality, closeness centrality, and a tenured professor of geography at the network density, require data such as the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, was number of ties linking each of the individu- arrested in Israel, his country of birth, after als (nodes) comprising the identified taking photographs of the scenic country- network. Given the nature of the Free Ghazi side in the Northern Galilee for possible use campaign, that is, its use of the Internet and in The Arab World Geographer, an academic ListServ-based discussion groups for corre- journal for which he serves as editor-in- spondence among members and dissemina- chief.5 He would be detained for the next 23 tion of information presents a challenge for days without charge.

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After several hours of interrogation, the Geographer and previous co-author with Shin Bet, Israel’s state police, escorted a Falah, and professor of geography at the bound and shackled Falah to his brother’s University of Amsterdam, to seek informa- home in the middle of the night so that they tion on Falah’s visit and to inform her of his could search his luggage. It was during this arrest. In turn, Mamadouh contacted Colin brief visit that Falah’s relatives had learned of Flint, another co-editor of The Arab World his arrest. They shared news of Falah’s arrest Geographer and previous co-author with and detention with his immediate family in Falah (Flint and Falah 2004), and associate Akron, but there were no details. An Israeli professor of geography at the University of court-issued gag order forbade Falah to speak Illinois. Flint, although on summer vacation Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 with his lawyer and forbade his lawyer from in Montana, immediately contacted Falah’s speaking with the press. Further, the gag family in Akron and offered his assistance. order forbade the Israeli media from covering After two days of researching relevant the arrest and detention (Gravois 2007a). contact information for the U.S., Israeli, and Further complicating matters and undoubt- Canadian governments, the first e-mail edly contributing to the length of Falah’s correspondence describing Falah’s predica- detention, a war erupted between Israel and ment along with a call to action, including Hezbollah along the Israeli–Lebanese border contact information of relevant Israeli following a Hezbollah rocket attack on an authorities (specifically, the Israeli Attorney Israeli border patrol and the kidnapping of General, the Minister of Justice, and the two Israeli soldiers just three days after his Public Prosecutor), went out on 16 July. The arrest (Myre and Erlanger 2006). e-mail was from one of Falah’s sons to In Akron, Falah’s wife and their three Daniel Boyarin, professor of Near Eastern children frantically tried to get information Studies and Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. By 19 about his arrest. They contacted colleagues July, this e-mail in turn was passed along to of Falah at the University of Akron and 19 more colleagues, all of whom work on informed them of Falah’s predicament and different but related problems concerning requested help in obtaining information. the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These 19 They also sought to get information to Israel colleagues each have interacted with Falah that they hoped would help vindicate Falah at one or more conferences, and they span and clear up any confusion as to who he was. the globe. Eleven are professors at universi- University and U.S. government officials ties in Israel, including Tel Aviv University were contacted, as was the local newspaper, and Haifa University. Five work at U.S.- the Akron Beacon-Journal. The first news based universities, including Harvard, story to break announcing the arrest and Michigan, and UC Berkeley. Two work at detention of Falah occurred in the Akron Canadian universities. The 11 colleagues in Beacon-Journal on 13 July, five days after Israel in turn concentrated their efforts on his initial arrest (Biliczky 2006). The next disseminating information among their day the story appeared internationally in the colleagues in Israel and urging them to write Associated Press wire (Sheeran 2006). letters to the appropriate authorities. For In Israel, having learned of Falah’s example, one responded to Boyarin and all arrest, the newspaper Haaretz contacted whom he had e-mailed with an e-mail Israeli geographer David Newman at Ben- encouraging colleagues to follow through on Gurion University and a former colleague the call to action: and previous co-author with Falah, for information about Falah and his back- We all know Ghazi. Please write on his behalf ground. Newman then contacted Virginie and apply any connection you have for his Mamadouh, a co-editor of The Arab World immidiate [sic] release.

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TABLE 2 Contact list of Colin Flint to which Flint sent e-mails and updates detailing the progress of Falah’s case Name University afﬁliation Country Nadia Abu-Zahra Oxford U.K. Hussein Amery Colorado U.S.A. Lawrence Berg British Columbia Canada Anat Biletzki Tel Aviv Israel

Anne Buttimer University College Dublin Ireland Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Mathew Coleman Ohio State U.S.A. Kenneth Cuno Illinois U.S.A. Lorraine Dowler Penn State U.S.A. Tobi Fenster Tel Aviv Israel Steven Gasteyer Illinois U.S.A. Derek Gregory British Columbia Canada Lev Grinberg Ben-Gurion Israel Gillian Hart Berkeley U.S.A. Andrew Herod Georgia U.S.A. P. A. Jackson Shefﬁeld U.K. Gerry Kearns Cambridge U.K. Scott Kirsch North Carolina U.S.A. Audrey Kobayashi Queen’s Canada Virginie Mamadouh Amsterdam Netherlands Tamar Mayer Middlebury U.S.A. Patrick McGreevy American University of Beirut Lebanon Alex Murphy Oregon U.S.A. David Newman Ben-Gurion Israel Shannon O’Lear Kansas U.S.A. John O’Loughlin Colorado U.S.A. Anssi Paasi Oulu Finland Keith Richards Cambridge U.K. Izhak Schnell Tel Aviv Israel Eric Sheppard Minnesota U.S.A. Lynn Staeheli Colorado U.S.A. Peter Taylor Loughborough U.K. Gerard Toal Virginia Tech U.S.A. Oren Yiftachel Ben-Gurion Israel

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For their part, one of the colleagues in Education. Subsequently, Orzeck sent an e- Canada responded with an e-mail that read, mail to several ListServ-based discussion groups simultaneously: the Socialist and I’ve passed along your message to a number of Critical Geography Specialty Group of the friends working in the Canadian media—I have AAG, the Feminism in Geography discus- not seen nor heard any coverage of this here. sion group, the Sexuality and Space Specialty Group of the AAG, the Cultural On 18 July, Colin Flint passed along an Geography Specialty Group of the AAG, and e-mail similar to that of Falah’s son describ- the departmental ListServ group of the ing Falah’s precarious situation and listing Department of Geography at Syracuse Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 contact information of relevant authorities. University. Orzeck included an extensive list In addition to a plea for action, Flint elabo- of relevant contact information that included rated on Falah’s academic credentials and the president of Israel, the Israeli prime made an appeal for academic freedom as a minister, the inspector general of the Israeli casus belli for involvement in the bourgeon- Police, the U.S. secretary of state, the Israeli ing campaign to Free Ghazi. Flint sent his e- ambassador to Canada, and the Canadian mail to several colleagues, including Peter minister of foreign affairs. Orzeck’s e-mail Taylor at the University of Loughborough in was in turn forwarded and posted to the the U.K., Derek Gregory at the University of ListServ-based discussion group of the British Columbia in Canada, Anne Buttimer Asian Geography Specialty Group of the at University College Dublin in Ireland, AAG. Audrey Kobayashi at Queen’s University in Spurred by the e-mails posted in these Canada, and Anssi Paasi at Oulu in Finland, various discussion groups and forums, a to name a few key actors that span the globe. wider campaign to Free Ghazi consequently Table 2 provides the complete list of contacts ensued. The AAG, for example, communi- to which Colin Flint sent his initial e-mail cated directly with the Israeli Ministry of and, later, follow-up e-mails with updates Justice and with other high-level contacts in concerning Falah’s case. The individuals on both the Israeli and Canadian governments the list are largely political geographers who to request that Falah be granted due process research and publish in the tradition of criti- (AAG 2006). Additionally, the AAG coordi- cal geography, and many of these have done nated with the Israeli Association of work in Middle Eastern studies or work Geographers in order to facilitate informa- related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. tion exchange and to be of assistance to From Colin Flint’s e-mails to the list in Table Israeli geographers working for Falah’s 2, his e-mails were then passed on to release. Apart from the AAG’s collective managers of various ListServ-based discus- efforts, many geographers and scholars of sion forums of AAG specialty groups, Middle Eastern studies wrote articles that namely Urban Geography, Economic were published in various newspapers or Geography, and Political Geography, and activist Web sites, blogs, letters to the editor, onward to the Middle Eastern Studies and open letters to relevant authorities.6 Association. Geographers also conducted radio inter- Also on 18 July, Reecia Orzeck, a PhD views on Canadian and Irish public radio student at the time at Syracuse University (Morrissey 2006). The extent of letters writ- studying international law in the Israeli– ten to authorities in the U.S., Canadian, Palestinian conflict, and who was familiar Israeli, and perhaps other governments with Falah’s work, independently learned of cannot be known. However, by the time the Falah’s plight through a news article that Israeli newspaper Haaretz was able to report appeared in the Chronicle of Higher on the arrest and detention of Falah on 26

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TABLE 3 Known list of ListServ-based scholarly discussion groups in which news of Falah’s arrest and updates about the progress of his case were posted (these posts also provided contact information for relevant U.S., Canadian, and Israeli authorities and a link to an online petition calling for Falah’s release) ListServ-based discussion groups Members Source Asian Geography SG 296 2006–7 Annual Report Cultural Geography SG 265 2007 Annual Report

Gender in Geography discussion group 500 Web site Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Political Geography SG 529 2006 Annual Report Sexuality and Space SG 130 2005 Annual Report Socialist and Critical Geography SG 295 2006 Annual Report Syracuse Department of Geography 70 Web site Urban Geography SG 1 388 2006–7 Annual Report Academics for Justice Yahoo Group 362 Web site Middle Eastern Studies Association 2 600 Web site Total 6 432

July, the story reported that “academics nevertheless substantial. Indeed, organizers around the world have organized an interna- of the campaign established an online peti- tional campaign on behalf of Falah calling tion that was publicly announced on 27 July on Israel to allow Falah due process, and to via postings in the ListServ-based discus- either present him with and indictment or sion groups. Falah was scheduled for a court release him” (Traubmann and Melman hearing on 30 July, and the petition was 2006). announced in an effort to collect signatures Table 3 presents the ListServ-based to be presented at Falah’s hearing. On 30 discussion forums of the various AAG July 2006, after enduring 23 days of incar- specialty groups and other scholarly discus- ceration, interrogation, and torture, Falah sion forums where e-mails detailing Falah’s was released without charge. In a little more dreadful situation, including updates on his than the 48 hours that transpired between the case along with calls to action and relevant e-mail announcing the establishment of the contact information and, finally, a link to an online petition and news of Falah’s release, online petition, are known to have been more than 1 500 people around the world posted. In addition, the membership had added their names to the online petition, numbers of each group provided by their including 1 190 spanning 44 countries who respective annual reports or Web sites are listed a university affiliation (Figure 1). presented. The total number of nodes potentially reached by interlocking memberships Discussion among these groups alone is ~6 432. Although the actual number is probably The campaign to Free Ghazi did not arise much lower, considering that not all independent of Falah’s work as a profes- members of a specialty group are necessarily sional academic. Rather, social network subscribers to their scholarly forums and analysis and the notion of scale as funda- that an unknown number of nodes overlap, mentally experiential informs us that a the reach of the Free Ghazi campaign was campaign like the one to Free Ghazi would

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FIGURE 1 Distribution of university afﬁliations of signatories of the Free Ghazi online petition be led by those closest, or most “adjacent,” publishing research in peer-reviewed jour- to Falah himself. Hanson (2000), mean- nals, attending conferences, publishing while, demonstrates that such networks are books, and the like. And the larger one’s formed through years of scholarship like record of scholarship, the larger one’s

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TABLE 4 Shared members of the combined immediate professional networks, including once-removed, of Ghazi-Walid Falah and Colin Flint by degree centrality (3 or greater) Name University Afﬁliation Degree Centrality (No. of Links) Colin Flint Illinois 18 Ghazi-Walid Falah Akron 14 Anssi Paasi Oulu 13 Peter Taylor Loughborough 13

Lynn Staeheli Colorado 12 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Gerard Toal Virginia Tech 12 Virginie Mamadouh Amsterdam 11 Don Mitchell Syracuse 10 Derek Gregory British Columbia 9 Caroline Nagel South Carolina 9 John O’Loughlin Colorado 9 Fred Shelley Oklahoma 9 Gerald Webster Wyoming 8 David Newman Ben-Gurion 7 Andrew Herod Georgia 6 Amery Hussein Colorado 6 Patrick McGreevy American University of Beirut 6 Stanley Brunn Kentucky 5 R. J. Johnston Bristol 5 Janet Kodras Florida State 5 Alex Murphy Oregon 5 Lawrence Berg British Columbia 4 Scott Kirsch North Carolina 4 Eric Sheppard Minnesota 3 Barney Warf Florida State 3

professional network. These expectations tional system comprising their professional are clearly borne out in the Free Ghazi ties and, indeed, it was to this wider rela- campaign. Colin Flint, a political geogra- tional system that Flint turned in order to pher at the University of Illinois, is a central mobilize on Falah’s behalf (Wasserman and member Falah’s professional network. The Faust 1994, 7–8). two co-authored three peer-reviewed papers Table 4 presents the relational system in the two years preceding Falah’s arrest, comprising the shared members of the and Flint had published five articles in the combined immediate professional networks, Arab World Geographer, a journal for which including once-removed, of both Falah and Falah serves as editor-in-chief. Flint also Flint, ranked by degree centrality or number serves as book review editor for AWG. of ties. These include co-authors and co- Flint’s action in leading the campaign to editors of Falah and/or Flint, those who “Free Ghazi,” then, arose out of the rela- share editorial board memberships with

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) A Network-Diffusion Analysis of the Campaign to Free Ghazi-Walid Falah 211 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021

FIGURE 2 Dyads of the combined immediate professional networks, including once-removed, of Ghazi-Walid Falah and Colin Flint by degree centrality (3 or greater)

Falah or Flint, those who published in the organize or participated in the campaign to journal Arab World Geographer, of which Free Ghazi. All are intimate members of a Falah is editor-in-chief, and the editor(s) of a wider professional network built over a book that Falah or Flint has published a career now spanning 25 years. It was this chapter in (or vice versa). Figure 2 presents a pre-existing network of geographers and truncated diagram utilizing the software scholars that, when mobilized, broadened to program UCINET 6.0 (Borgatti, Everett, include a much wider network of colleagues, and Freeman 2002) illustrating the linkages co-authors, and co-editors of Flint’s contact among the combined professional networks list, and their colleagues, co-authors, and of Falah and Flint. Note that the diagram co-editors—and so on—until, in a little includes notable and prominent political more than 48 hours after its inception, 1 190 geographers just one link removed from scholars spanning 44 countries added their either Falah or Flint or both, such as Peter names to the petition calling for Israel to Taylor, Derek Gregory, Don Mitchell, Lynn grant Falah due process and to present Falah Staeheli, R. J. Johnston, Fred Shelley, Janet with an indictment or release him. Kodras, Gerald Webster, Lawrence Berg, and several others, many of whom helped

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Conclusion mails—essentially “piggy-backing” on modern telecommunications infrastruc- The geography of the Free Ghazi campaign ture—accounts for the speed and reach of reflects the nature of how the campaign was the Free Ghazi campaign. The ability of the conducted: in the English language via a petition portion of the campaign to reach 44 pre-existing professional network estab- countries in a span of little more than 48 lished over a career of scholarship now span- hours attests to the nature of contemporary ning 25 years; and through the use of electronic media, the lattice-like infrastruc- technologies like ListServ-based discussion tural development of the Internet and its groups and the Internet. Throughout his routers since its inception by ARPA, and the Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 career, Falah has worked at various universi- design of the BITNET-created software ties in several, mostly English-speaking, ListServ to pass information to large countries: he did his PhD at Durham numbers of subscribers simultaneously. University in the U.K.; he worked at the Three global clusters that captured the most University of Wales in the U.K., at the signatures reflect Falah’s network in the University of Toronto in Canada, and, U.S.A., U.K. and Israel. Indeed, Table 5 pres- finally, at the University of Akron, where he ents the top 17 universities ranked by currently works. The vast majority of his number of signatories. With the exception of research papers have been published in peer- the University of Melbourne in Australia, reviewed English-language journals in the top 17 is comprised exclusively of geography and Middle Eastern studies. The universities from the three primary clusters geography of the Free Ghazi campaign thus of North America, Western Europe, and reflects Falah’s associations in the English- Israel. speaking academic world: current and Finally, the notion of scale as funda- former colleagues at universities in the U.K., mentally experiential and as ultimately priv- Canada, and the U.S.A., co-authors of Falah, ileging the body and mind drives home a those who have served on editorial boards very frightful aspect of the whole ordeal. with Falah, those who have published in the When news of Falah’s arrest spread, several journal Arab World Geographer for which actors commented that it is possible, if not Falah serves as editor-in-chief, and the probable, that Falah was arrested for the very editor(s) of books that Falah has published a scholarship he is known for. They under- chapter in or vice versa. Beyond these actors stood that Falah does not work in isolation; more immediate to Falah, his more expan- rather, that he is part of a community of sive professional network includes scholars scholars with shared interests and much working within the same academic fields collaboration. Indeed, Falah reports that the who are familiar with his work—scholars focus of his interrogation was an attempt to like Reecia Orzeck, the Syracuse PhD gather information about colleagues, that is, student who, after learning of Falah’s arrest, Arab and Iranian members of the wider passed on news of his predicament along network of scholars working specifically on with contact information of relevant author- issues related to the Israeli–Palestinian ities to at least five separate Listserv-based conflict (Gravois 2007a, 2007b; Falah scholarly discussion forums, potentially 2007). Most understand that if Falah could reaching more than 700 subscribed be arrested and his scholarship and network members. of colleagues turned against him, so too it That the petition was developed online could happen to them—to us. This could and over the Internet, and that news and calls surely cow less assured academics, perhaps to action were shared exclusively over particularly neophyte academics early in ListServ-based discussion groups and e- their careers or those in graduate school, into

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TABLE 5 Universities ranked by number of petition signatories (at least seven signatures) University Country Signature Count University of Toronto Canada 42 University of British Columbia Canada 37 York University Canada 37 Queen’s University Canada 36 University College Cork Ireland 34 The University of Akron U.S.A. 29 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Bucknell University U.S.A. 21 The Pennsylvania State University U.S.A. 20 Syracuse University U.S.A. 19 University of Minnesota U.S.A. 18 City University of New York U.S.A. 17 Simon Fraser University Canada 16 University of California, Berkeley U.S.A. 13 Queen Mary, University of London U.K. 11 Tel Aviv University Israel 11 McGill University Canada 10 Newcastle University U.K. 10 UCLA U.S.A. 10 University of Illinois U.S.A. 10 University of Melbourne Australia 10 University of Washington U.S.A. 10 Ben Gurion University Israel 9 University College Dublin Ireland 9 University of Wisconsin U.S.A. 9 Loughborough University U.K. 8 Manchester Metropolitan University U.K. 8 National University of Ireland Ireland 8 Oberlin College U.S.A. 8 University of Georgia U.S.A. 8 University of Kentucky U.S.A. 8 San Francisco State University U.S.A. 7 University of Arizona U.S.A. 7 University of Colorado U.S.A. 7 University of Michigan U.S.A. 7 avoiding investigating problems deemed lenged need not be spelled out here. The controversial or “political”; cowed, in other campaign to Free Ghazi turned out to be words, into self-censorship.7 The damage to much more than about freeing Ghazi-Walid science that would occur if this went unchal- Falah. Ultimately, it was about academic

The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 11, no 4 (2008) 214 Mark de Socio freedom, and about freeing the academy Ireland. This petition accompanied an open from government intimidation. letter calling for Falah’s release that was published in Ireland’s national newspaper, the Acknowledgements Irish Times, on 25 July 2006. Bruce D’Arcus, The author would like to thank Professors a political geographer at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, posted regular updates John Agnew and Don Mitchell and two concerning Falah’s case on his online blog. anonymous reviewers for their useful Keith Yearman, assistant professor of geogra- comments and suggestions regarding an phy at the College of DuPage in Illinois, filed earlier version of this article. a Freedom of Information Act request for all

official U.S. State Department correspon- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/11/4/195/1447268/arwg_11_4_b81j3k78641t2223.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 dence with Israel concerning Falah’s case to Notes be publicly released. The State Department’s 1 This article is dedicated to Professor Ghazi- response was limited; they released official Walid Falah and all individuals who played a messages that included only summaries of role, no matter how small, in the campaign to news stories from around the world. Juan “Free Ghazi.” Cole, president of the Middle Eastern Studies 2 The State of Israel never officially accused Association (MESA), wrote a letter dated 25 Falah of spying; rather, the insinuation of July 2006 on behalf of MESA to Israeli prime spying was leaked to the Israeli media (see minister Ehud Olmert, and to Israel’s minister Traubmann and Melman 2006). The official of justice and attorney general, demanding reason for Falah’s arrest was suspicion of due process for Falah. MESA posted Cole’s taking photographs of a sensitive military letter on its Web site. These are just a few facility, a charge that was ultimately known examples of independent activities dismissed. After 23 days of detention and among scholars participating in the Free interrogation, Falah was unconditionally Ghazi campaign. released. 7 Colin Flint, associate professor of geography 3 Alfred W. McCoy, Professor of History at the at the University of Illinois—Champaign, is University of Wisconsin at Madison and quoted in Inside Higher Education: “‘This author of A Question of Torture (2006), was hits close to home,’ he said. ‘In a lot of discus- consulted by Chronicle of Higher Education sions at conferences in recent years, we have reporter John Gravois. “As to whether he all wrestled with the notion of self-censorship, personally considers Mr. Falah’s experience about what we decide to do and say in class torture, Mr. McCoy does not hesitate. ‘No and in our research. Something like this turns question,’ he says. ‘Sixty hours of sleep depri- that up a few degrees. But we must maintain vation in and of itself is torture’” (Gravois the notion that in a free society, critical voices 2007b). should be allowed to speak’” (Lederman 4 “Extra-local” in this context means any organ- 2006). ization or institution with jurisdiction beyond “The Hill.” References 5 For a detailed context and chronology of Association of American Geographers [AAG]. Falah’s visit to Israel, and of his arrest and 2006. AAG supports member detained in detention, see Gravois (2007a, 2007b); Falah Middle East. AAG Newsletter 4(8):9. (2007, 2008). Adams, P. C. 1996. Protest and the scale politics 6 For example, John Morrissey, a young politi- of telecommunications. Political cal geographer at the National University of Geography 15:419–41. Ireland at Galway, conducted a radio interview ———. 1998. Network topologies and virtual on Irish public radio to highlight Falah’s case place. Annals of the Association of (Morrissey 2006). He also helped organize a American Geographers 88:88–106. petition of Irish geographers, capturing a total Agnew, J. 1997. The dramaturgy of horizons: of 40 signatures of geographers—highly Geographical scale in the “Reconstruction reputable and neophyte alike—from across of Italy” by the new Italian political parties,

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