Well, such is our fate that every couple of months we'll get another discussion like this here, or on wikimania-planning-l or on foundation-l or on meta or on the conference wiki...
I have repeatedly given very long and detailed answers to such claims on all these places, so I won't repeat them here again because really I'm getting a little tired and I have better things to do with my time to prepare Wikimania (registration, scholarships, program...). You can look them up in the archives if you're so inclined.
I'll still use the opportunity to refer you to this entertaining video so that you may reconsider what you know about Israel and the preposterous claim that it practices apartheid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns2Fi2Jesg0 Israel has many political problems one could be critical of, as a result of the Arab-Israel conflict. But apartheid in its South African sense is none of them.
Harel Cain Wikimania 2011 local team
On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 6:01 PM, phoebe ayers phoebe.ayers@gmail.comwrote:
On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 4:50 AM, matthew satchwell mattsatchwell@gmail.com wrote:
Please dont hold you conference in Haifa If so I will be obliged to boycott you I was brought up in South Africa
I think the best possible answer to this, since you mention South Africa, is to help work on the South Africa bid for next year! http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Bids/Stellenbosch
Even if the bid doesn't win for 2012, you can use the experience and information you find out to try for a future year, and I know there are many Wikimedians who would love to come to SA for the conference. If the bid team has any questions about best practices there are plenty of experienced Wikimaniacs on this list.
best regards, Phoebe
p.s. the choice of Israel is, and will remain, controversial. I don't think we deny or want to ignore that. I can say however that I got an "advance look" at the Haifa site when I visited a few weeks ago, and I think it will be a great Wikimania; I hope that those who are able to will join us.
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