Former U of T professor detained in Israel once 'questioned for 60 hours'

"There were five interrogators. I had to sit on a chair, sometimes they tied my hands behind my back, sometimes they released them, depending on their mood," said Ghazi Falah, 53, an Arab with dual Israeli and Canadian citizenship.

Falah, who specializes in border disputes and currently teaches at the University of Akron in Ohio, said he was routinely taken from his cell for questioning, with one session lasting 60 hours.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld declined to comment on the conditions of Falah's detention, saying only that "based on the investigation and the evidence we had, he was released."

Falah, who was released Sunday, was held after taking photographs close to Israel's border with Lebanon. One picture showed an Israeli military antenna.

Falah said he was taking pictures along the border because he thought they would be of interest to an academic conference he was planning to attend and for a journal he edits.

During his detention, his interrogators accused him of spying for "forces opposing Israel," Falah said.

Also, he was denied access to his lawyer for 21 days, and reporters were not permitted to disclose his detainment.

Falah said he had come to the area to visit his mother who was in a Haifa hospital to get a brain tumour removed.

"She didn't know I was arrested. My family told her I was in Jordan. She asked about me all the time," he said. "She still doesn't know."

The professor said he believes he was detained because he has written articles critical of Israel.

"I think it was a political arrest, because of my writing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and about Israel's policies toward its Palestinian citizens," he said.

Falah lived in Toronto between 1992 and 2001, and taught geography at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.

He said on Monday he hoped to be back in Canada within a few days, and from there would head to Akron to rejoin his family.

Source

About headlines and content that has changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.