I take your point, and thank you for the supplemental data. As I said, I am in
favor of more information, because it better informs a discussion regardless of
one’s own personal views. {Jonathan}
-------------------
Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
Assistant Professor of Law
Director, Institute for Business, Law and Technology (IBLT)
Touro Law Center
225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip, NY 11722
Direct: 631-761-7119
e-mail: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; PGP key 0xFBA73A9E
Skype: jonathanezor Twitter: profjonathan
From: Jillian C. York [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 11:24 AM
To: Jonathan Ezor
Cc: Liberation Technologies
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Computer seizure in the West Bank
Jonathan,
With all due respect, your post also contains some falsehoods. First off, this
is not accurate:
"That is, Palestinians must utilize Israeli ISPs because they, unlike their
Palestinian counterparts, are not being blocked in the name of suppression."
Yes, the Palestinian Authority was blocking websites until the recent debacle
caused them to backtrack. This is indefensible. That said, that is not at all
why Palestinians must utilize Israeli ISPs. The Palestinian network, as
Miriyam Aouragh has detailed greatly in her excellent book Palestine Online as
have Harvard Berkman Center researchers, is entirely co-dependent on the
Israeli network. Palestinians do not use Israeli ISPs, they use Palestinian
ISPs that are dependent on Israeli ones, because Israel retains control over
telecommunications in the West Bank.
From the OpenNet Initiative<http://opennet.net/research/profiles/gazawestbank>,
a research group of the University of Toronto, SecDev, and Harvard's Berkman
Center (full disclosure: I used to work there, but did not write or research
this particular profile):
The telecom market in the Palestinian territories faces a number of challenges.
For example, there are restrictions on what equipment can be imported.
Businesses reported that Israel does not allow the importation of equipment
such as GPS devices for security
reasons.12<http://opennet.net/research/profiles/gazawestbank#footnote12_52eoknd>
Palestine does not have a direct connection to the Internet infrastructure,
and Internet services go through an Israeli service
provider.13<http://opennet.net/research/profiles/gazawestbank#footnote13_634up2h>
Israel also blocks access to 3G services in the West Bank.
Now, I cannot speak to this particular incident either, but given Israel's
treatment of journalists (see CPJ's 2011
report<http://cpj.org/2012/02/attacks-on-the-press-in-2011-israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory.php>,
which also includes Palestinian attacks on journalists), Israel's habit of
shutting down television
stations<http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-shuts-down-two-palestinian-tv-stations-in-ramallah-1.415631>,
and the fact of the occupation more generally, it would not surprise me in the
least.
That said, we must absolutely condemn the censorship enacted by Hamas and the
PA as well. But that should go without saying. Ultimately, Jonathan, it's you
who comes off as one-sided.
Sincerely,
Jillian
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 5:09 PM, Jonathan Ezor
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
The one-sided, incendiary and inaccurate terminology of the blog posting quoted
by Mallory Knodel creates the impression that, were it not for the actions of
the overbearing Israelis, Palestinians would otherwise enjoy full computer and
Internet freedom. Of course, this is far from the truth. Rather, as reported by
many including Thomas Friedman in his 7 May 2012 New York Times editorial
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/world/middleeast/arab-spring-stirs-palestinian-journalists-to-test-limits.html),
it is the Palestinian Authority which has suppressed online speech, arrested
bloggers and journalists for governmental criticism, and sought to block entire
Web sites, only to be foiled in the last effort because (as Friedman says the
now-resigned Palestinian Authority communications minister Mashour Abudaka
stated) “with Israeli Internet providers covering much of the West Bank, it is
impossible to block any site completely, ‘so why give us the image of a
dictatorship?’” That is, Palestinians must utilize Israeli ISPs because they,
unlike their Palestinian counterparts, are not being blocked in the name of
suppression.
It is incumbent upon all of us that, before we accept any side’s version of
events such as the alleged seizure of the BlockTheWall computers reported in
this blog, we seek out additional, empirical sources to get a full (or at least
better) understanding of what happened. This is as true today as it was for the
various actions chronicled by Bruce Sterling in The Hacker Crackdown decades
ago, and those who are subject to governmental action may be just as likely to
skew reporting for their own purposes as governments themselves. {Jonathan}
-------------------
Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
Assistant Professor of Law
Director, Institute for Business, Law and Technology (IBLT)
Touro Law Center
225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip, NY 11722
Direct: 631-761-7119<tel:631-761-7119>
e-mail: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; PGP key 0xFBA73A9E
Skype: jonathanezor Twitter: profjonathan
From:
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>]
On Behalf Of Mallory Knodel
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 10:46 AM
To: Liberation Technologies
Subject: [liberationtech] Computer seizure in the West Bank
I believe these actions, such as those by the FBI on the May First and Riseup
server, are indicative of the power of online networks for social change. The
two situations are quite different in that escalation of this attack on
Palestinian civil society is a very real possibility without some international
outcry. Some are suspecting that this is related to the current hunger strike
of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
<snip>
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+1-857-891-4244 | jilliancyork.com<http://jilliancyork.com/> | @jilliancyork
"We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the
seemingly impossible to become a reality" - Vaclav Havel
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