Madam, - I write to let you know the good news that Prof Ghazi Falah, the political geographer detained in Israel, was freed on Sunday with all charges dropped. His mother met him on his release and he is now recovering with his family in Galilee. The international media campaign for his release was instrumental in the imposed gag order on his case being dropped on July 26th and Ghazi met his lawyer for the first time. On July 27th, the court instructed the authorities to charge or release him by July 30th.
Ghazi's case demonstrates the critical importance of knowledge networks for awareness of issues of social justice, and to this end I would like to thank The Irish Times for their support in bringing this case to a wider audience.
A petition for Ghazi's release was singed by over 1,300 academics worldwide in the space of two days before the court ruling on Sunday.
Despite my delight at Ghazi's release, I would like to spare a thought for the thousands of people throughout the world detained without charge or access to legal counsel who do not have the same support from the West.
In an age when the writ of international law and basic human rights is so frequently marginalised and the invocation of emergency powers is sadly becoming the norm in the context of the "war on terror", my hope is that we should continually question the purpose and legitimacy of the use of exceptional powers by all governments, east and west, and see its very real human consequences. - Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN MORRISSEY, Department of Geography, NUI Galway.