Dear Yohai,
I thought it was pretty clear that this has nothing to do with me
personally. But just to emphasize, and not to yell or anything like this:
THIS DISCUSSION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME PERSONALLY!
Most appreciatively,
--
Maysara
"All that is necessary to right action, is right judgment." _Rene Descartes
2010/8/12 Yohai Edery <yohaied(a)gmail.com>
Hello Maysara and all,
I feel like I have to send an e-mail again regarding what you wrote below
as there is a lot of miss information in what you wrote.
Firstly, let's put things on the table, as an Egyptian you are not feeling
good with coming to Israel as it would seem to your friends back home like
you are trying to "normalize" relations with Israel. Although there are
almost 30 years of peace between our countries, Egypt and Egyptians have
been always against normalizing relation with Israel and in fact there is a
lot of incitement towards Israel and Jews in general in Egyptian media,
books, cultural events and so. Israeli cultural products (movies, music,
theater and such) were band from participation in festival in Egypt even
international ones held in Egypt. The situation with Jordan is not
better…unfortunately. On the meantime, Israel has welcomed movies, music and
artists from Egypt and Jordan that have participated in festivals and events
in Israel.
I can guarantee that people from all over the world will have no problem
coming to the event in Israel. Israeli authorities will allow everyone from
everywhere to come to Wikimania providing he/she has not been engaged in
terrorist activities…which I believe is not the case for the participants of
our event….I doubt Al Qaida, Hammas and Hezbollah care about Wikipedia. I
can tell you from past experience that people from Libya and Lebanon came to
conferences in Israel without any trouble. The problem maybe with their own
home government….but that, unfortunately, we can't control.
Again, accusation bout maltreatment and confiscation of belongings are *NONSENCE
*I want to remind you that Israel is a full functioning democracy!!! We
DO NOT do things against the law and will not confiscate anything from
anyone unless there is a solid reason. Again, I have been involved with tens
of conferences in Israel and had many friends from all over the world coming
to Israel, none of them suffered from any of those things you maintained. I
would like to kindly ask you to stop with those accusations.
Regarding arriving to Israel from Cairo, again, you don’t have to do that
by bus or car only like you said….you can easily fly to Ben gurion
international airport in Tel Aviv on a non-stop flight from Cairo with El-Al
Israeli airline or Air Sinai (part of Air Egypt). If you need help with
making the reservations, I would love to help….
I think that change comes from people and not for the leaders….I would
expect you to see this event as a great opportunity to start real dialogue
between people in the Mideast and use such an important source of
information like Wikipedia to a good use as a tool to bring people together,
break stigmas and fight prejudice. The only way we can live together in
peace is if we will get to know each other….I have visited Egypt and Jordan
as well as the Palestinian territories…I know a lot about the Arab
world…what do you know about me?
Hopping to show you all the real face of Israel when you are hear...
Good night from Haifa, Israel
*Yohai Edery*
*יוחאי אדרי *
E-mail: yohaied(a)gmail.com <http://yohaied@gmail.com%20>
P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
*From:* wikimania-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:
wikimania-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *Maysara Omar
*Sent:* Thursday, August 12, 2010 5:46 AM
*To:* Wikimania general list (open subscription)
*Subject:* Re: [Wikimania-l] Problematic aspects of hosting the next
conference in Haifa, Israel
Hello to All :)
1) Of course i am aware that the decision has already been made. I would
not have brought this issue had i not thought, (along with many others by
the way who are unfortunately not here to express themselves about this)
that whatever jury took that decision has fallen into a manifest error, that
justifies a look back and reconsideration, rather than be ignored, and
regardless of whether this will change things or not. The issue needs to be
addressed, because it is very important. It is a fact, that participants
from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and possibly other countries, will
never have the chance to attend the next wikimania conference should it be
held in Israel. Further, other participants from other countries,
particularly "Arab" countries whose citizens do not usually go to Israel for
any purpose, and this applies to both Jordan and Egypt with whom Israel is
in diplomatically fine terms, will find many troubles from both the Israeli
and their own governments. This is no speculation, there are hundreds of
accounts on the internet of maltreatment and confiscation of belongings of
passengers for all sorts of reasons by Israeli officials at entry/exit
points. Questions asked in such aggressive tonality and attitude regarding
the passengers' views and opinion of Israel and the conflict in the middle
east. Please ask the ministry of foreign affairs, whether they will let some
attendees in, if they answered these questions as they do believe rather
than fake a friendly answer!
2) If even presidential elections can be repeated because their results
were doubtful, i cannot see why everyone here so far is talking about the
"impossibility" of reconsidering the validity of the decision made by the
jury, as though it is a sanctified or infallible one! Somehow it seems that
so far no one apart from myself, who could get into Israel only following a
car or bus ride of 8 hours from my very home in Cairo, took the time to
think of the position of those who will never be permitted into Israel, or
who will avoid doing so because Israel is in fact a problematic destination
for them. And regardless of whether any of this is fair or not, we currently
do have a realistic situation that is laden with injustice and great
potential of practical disorder, which somehow was not raised during the
decision making process, although it is no secret or news! This suggests
that non of those who will be negatively effected by the decision, were
present when the process of deciding was ongoing. One of the benefits of
this discussion then, is perhaps to give more attention to such matters as
representativeness, inclusive deliberation, and outreach, in further such
processes of wikimania biding and decision making. Perhaps from now on, we
should make more effort in reaching out for, you know, "all the people on
Earth" who might want to come to wikimania with their experiences, etc.
Unfortunately I was not there then, and maybe i won't be able to be there
later, but I do not believe that it is too late to bring this issue now, and
to attempt to correct what is wrong even by those who, understandably, love
their own country and would have loved to see it hosting such a wonderful
event. It is for a clean, freeing, progressive, and Humanistic experience
and social process that we commit ourselves; the passing-by moments in this
experience will be destructive if they are absorbed only in the passing-by
moment!
Finally, Wikimania conferences must be accessible to everyone, without
having to speak of making "exceptions" and taking extra measures to smoothen
the passage of those who participate together everyday in creating and
making the new free knowledge and culture of our age and the future. This is
the position that I have chosen for myself, rather than the one that you ask
me to adopt, that is, to suggest solutions to numberless problems and to an
erroneous and unfair condition and situation. And now I ask you, what is
YOUR position?
:)
--
Maysara
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