Hi,
Well…let's start with a basic fact….mistakes happen. We are all human beings and sometimes we make mistakes…that was obviously one made by the security at TLV airport… BUT, did you read through all of it and saw what the Israel Aviation Authority spokesman said???
Quite from the report you sent:
An IAA spokesperson reported in response: "This incident is unknown to us. We performed a thorough check. There was no contact made with us or any other body. No unusual events were registered at Ben Gurion Airport, and we have no idea about this incident, which, from our perspective, never happened."
IAA officials said that root of the problem is that the host organizations don't bother accompanying their guests to the airport.
So did it really happened? I don’t know but I am sure that the Wikimania team in Israel (which I am not part of…let me be clear about it again) will do his best to make sure each guest will be taken care off.
On the same note, have you ever visited the UK or the US? Did you see the way they treat people with so called "Arab appearance"? will it make you say that we shouldn’t have Wikimania conferences in London or NYC?
Israeli security officers deals with thousands of tourists from all over the world every day. Sometime mistakes like this one (if it really happened) happens, It's great that those incidents are being published (btw, this is an Israeli newspaper and I have seen the story in the Hebrew version as well) so we can learn from it and make sure it won't happen again.
Enjoy,
Yohai Edery
יוחאי אדרי
E-mail: yohaied@gmail.com P Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
From: wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maysara Omar Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 1:03 AM To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Problematic aspects of hosting the next conference in Haifa, Israel
Yohai Edery wrote:
Again, accusation bout maltreatment and confiscation of belongings are NONSENCE I want to remind you that Israel is a full functioning democracy!!!
Could you explain this, then: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3931210,00.html
and could you guarantee that it won't happen even to non VIP youth such as ourselves, or maybe to Jimmy Wales if the Israeli officials would grant him VIP status? And is it "nonsense" or fact that the notorious reputation of the full functioning democracy derives from real incidents?
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Maysara
"All that is necessary to right action, is right judgment." _Rene Descartes