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CounterPunch
September
23, 2002
Web Warfare Comes to America
by Lawrence Davidson
A new front in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
has been opened in the United States. This has not been done
by Islamic fundamentalists, or radical Palestinians. It has been
done by American and Israeli computer hackers. Action on this
new front has taken the form of identity theft, harassment, incitement
to harassment, defamation of character, and malicious misrepresentation
through the misuse and misappropriation of computer e-mail facilities
and lists. In the process, the reliability of the web based system
of communication has been undercut, the integrity of some very
prestigious universities have been called into question, and
the judgment of law enforcement authorities made to look tainted
with bias. Let me give a number of examples.
In early July a recent graduate of the
University of Pennsylvania by the name of Marc Dworkin, using
a university e-mail account, sent a message to recipients of
his e-mail lists directing them to harass Professor Mona Baker
at England's University of Manchester Institute for Science and
Technology. His exact words, after giving Professor Baker's e-mail
address and telephone number, were "harrass (sic) the motherfucker."
This was Mr. Dworkin's way of expressing his disagreement with
Professor Baker over her support of the boycott of Israel. Soon
Professor Baker was receiving hundreds of obscene and threatening
communications. When the University of Pennsylvania's Vice President
for Information Systems and Computing, Ms Robin Beck, was informed
of this incident her reply to Baker was that a "careful
assessment based on what we currently know, does not reveal either
a violation of University policy, nor a violation of law."
When it was pointed out to University of Pennsylvania officials
that Dworkin's actions had indeed violated Penn's policies on
"Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources" and "Guidelines
on Open Expression" (his behavior is also a possible violation
of the Pennsylvania law on "harassment and stalking by communication
or address") they still refused to take any action. Why
should the University of Pennsylvania refuse to move against
someone using their e-mail accounts in a fashion that undermines
its educational purpose, violates its own policies, and possibly
constitutes criminal behavior?
In late August Professor Shahid Alam
at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts wrote a piece
in CounterPunch, later reprinted at Al-Ahram Weekly On Line,
in which he made a case for the boycott of Israeli academia as
one example of a non-violent alternative to the increasingly
desperate violent resistance of the Palestinians. In the process
he explained the conditions of Israeli occupation that had resulted
in the various forms of violent Palestinian struggle, including
suicide bombings. The piece was reconstructed and misrepresented
in the Jerusalem Post to make it appear that Alam "justified
terror attacks against Israelis." On September 4th the Boston
Herald, apparently not checking the accuracy of the Jerusalem
Post report, announced "Professor Shocks Northeastern with
Defense of Suicide Bombers." Almost immediately Professor
Alam began receiving a large number of harassing e-mails. In
addition, in an act of identity theft, e-mails misrepresenting
his position were forged and sent out under Alam's name. Northeastern
University's response to the Boston Herald report was to "distance"
itself from Alam. The professor's remarks were his alone and
the University did not "condone or officially recognize
them." The impression was left that Northeastern assumed
the Herald piece accurate. Why should Northeastern University
react in such a timid fashion to an incorrect report that threatened
the reputation of one of their own faculty members?
Throughout July and August, numerous
organizations and individuals who support the Palestinian cause,
oppose war in the Middle East, support human rights, and are
just generally critical of Israel, were harassed and interfered
with. Among the victims was Monica Terazi, Director of the New
York office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
(ADC). She was harassed and her identity stolen by hackers with
the result that, for a time, Yahoo Groups took her account off
line. When she reported this assault to the FBI, their response
was that no law had been broken: no money stolen, no computers
physically damaged, public safety had not been endangered. The
entire hacker operation, according to the FBI, was simply an
exercise protected by the First Amendment. Why should the FBI
take such a dismissive position on activities which, in many
states of the Union, are now recognized as a form of, to quote
the Pennsylvania statute, "harassment and stalking by communication?"
Ultimately, it was not the law enforcement
agencies or university administrators that investigated the hackers
who had harassed, abused, and misrepresented so many people over
the summer months. It was private individuals such as Professor
Bassam Shehadeh of Iowa State University. He managed to track
down some of the sources of abuse to sites in Israel and its
West Bank colonies. The Israelis had committed their acts of
harassment by accessing an ISP called Palnet.com on the West
Bank. When the Israeli army went about systematically destroying
the electronic communications facilities on the West Bank they
spared Palnet. To what end? Well, the result has been its misappropriation
in the manner described here.
This form of harassment via electronic
communications is on-going. It is being used to intimidate and
emotionally punish American and British academics, as well as
many others, who are critical of Israel and its policies. Yet
nothing of significance is being done about it by authorities
capable of curbing such behavior. For all intents and purposes,
the inaction of academic and law enforcement authorities has
created legal space for what are ordinarily illegal acts: harassment,
incitement to harassment, identity theft, and malicious misrepresentation.
At least this seems to be so when these assaults are directed
against those critical of positions favored by influential and
powerful interest groups. One can ask the question--would the
FBI or the administrators at the University of Pennsylvania or
Northeastern University have taken the positions they now do,
if such organized and extensive harassment and identity theft
had been directed against American Zionists by supporters of
the Palestinians?
The implications of this episode of "web
warfare" goes beyond the present situation. The hands off
position taken by the FBI and university authorities sets a precedent
for the future. While critics of Israel are now the main targets
of web based harassment and misrepresentation, there is no reason
why the circle of victims cannot become much larger. After all
it is a "virtual world" now and thus it is impossible
to keep such behavior "local." It seems we have found
a new technological way of assaulting each other on a worldwide
basis. It was Ortega Y Gasset who once observed that "hatred
is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values." The
present campaign of intimidation is certainly hate filled and
it is likely that others who hate will learn of these techniques
and use them. Those who can stop this behavior now, but have
chosen not to, ought to think again before the future of communications
becomes "extinct of values."
Lawrence Davidson is a professor of history at West Chester University
in Pennsylvania.
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