WADSWORTH, Ohio - An Ohio professor who spent 22 days in an Israeli jail on suspicion of spying for Iran and Hezbollah is back in the classroom, after taking last semester off to recover from what he describes as an exhausting and depressing experience.
Ghazi Falah, a geography professor at the University of Akron, is an Arab with dual Israeli and Canadian citizenship. He was arrested July 8, 2006, while taking photographs on a beach in northern Israel.
A few days later fighting broke out between Israel and Iran-sponsored Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, and the Israeli government later said Falah was suspected of spying. He was released July 30 without being charged with a crime.
Israel’s Ministry of Justice sent a letter Sept. 6 to several academics who had complained about Falah’s detention. The letter said the investigation “was conducted according to law, and was subject to judicial review.”
Falah returned to his home in Wadsworth and took a semester off work.
“I was obsessed,” he said of his inability to let the ordeal go. “I was hurt.”
He told the Akron Beacon Journal for a story published Monday that the allegations against him were not true.
“Everyone should know this is not fair,” said Falah, 53. “It is very important. Israel gets money from the United States and they should know what this money is going for.”
Falah says he was only taking a break from visiting his mother in a hospital, where she was to have surgery for a nonmalignant brain tumor. But driving north to a resort area near Lebanon to sightsee and take photos proved to be a mistake.
He was jailed in a windowless, underground cell and interrogated for up to 60 hours at a stretch about minutiae such as what kind of flag he flies at home (“Brazilian,” he responded in frustration) and the size of a Lebanese friend’s house. He went on a hunger strike, then realized that it was in his best interest to stay healthy, he said.
Among those from around the world who rallied to demand Falah’s release last summer was Hilal Khashan, a professor of political studies at the American University of Beirut.
“Professor Falah is, unquestionably, an individual of the highest moral caliber,” Khashan said. “The free time he has, while in Lebanon, is consumed entirely by culinary pursuits and futile matchmaking.”
He tried to get Canada to pay for his $30,000 defense in Israel. The government declined. Now he’s threatening to sue Israel. He wants an apology and compensation for his defense. He believes he was being penalized for his long-standing academic work on the border dispute between Israel and its neighbors.
