We at Wikimedia Israel are not ignoring the stories told on this thread, actually we're taking them very much to heart.

We are now considering a strong letter of complaint to various government agencies and a demand for formal written apology. Details will follow once we have decided on our course of action.

Harel Cain
Secretary, Wikimedia Israel

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:07, James Hare <messedrocker@gmail.com> wrote:

On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml" <church.of.emacs.ml@googlemail.com> wrote:

> On 08/10/2011 06:05 PM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:
>>
>> […]
>>
>> In both cases I was traveling alone. And in both cases I was myself, a
>> US citizen whose parents and name and skin color came from South Asia.
>> I can't pass as anything else.
>
> This is simply racism and harassment. There can be no excuse for that
> kind of treatment.
> If this is the way even a citizen of the western world is treated, I can
> understand very well why there were (almost?) no members of the Arab
> world in Israel.
>
> I find it regrettable that next Wikimania is going to be in Washington
> D.C. Airport harassment might not be as severe as in Israel, but perhaps
> severe enough so that Arab Wikimedians are prevented or discouraged from
> attending.
>
> Don't get me wrong, Wikimania in Israel was fantastic and D.C. will
> probably be, too, but we have to focus more on accessibility for *all*
> Wikimedians.
>
> Regards,
> Tobias
>
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While no one has the power to exempt anyone from security checks (in fact, whenever former Secretary of State Colin Powell travels, he gets the full check to show that everyone has to follow the rules), we can coordinate with TSA, tell them about our conference (including how tech-oriented some of the attendees are), and ask them for advice to make the security check process as simple as possible. My impression, though, is that while Israeli security focuses on you as a person, TSA mostly focuses on your stuff. Follow all their rules (take out laptop for separate x-ray scan, only small bottles of liquid, etc.) and I think you will be fine, but unfortunately I only have the perspective of a white US citizen.

I actually think the bigger obstacle will be obtaining a visa, for those who don't live in visa exempt countries. As mentioned earlier, we will do everything in our power to make the process easier; we will even be looking into visa scholarships. It helps that the US State Department knows what Wikipedia is and that they have sent people to two Wikimanias, 2006 and 2011.

James

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