Dear Muhammad,
The short answer is that we never contacted Sari Nusseibeh, and we're not very satisfied with this situation.
This is for a mixture of reasons, some of them mundane (nobody really picked up this specific suggestion; we were all busy; we forgot about it; we all assumed someone else will do it) and some of them more to the point - first and foremost because he is perceived, at least in the Israeli public, as a downright political figure, having held formal positions positions on the Palestinian side.
Clearly he's perceived as a moderate political figure, but that is totally beside the point - we never meant to make Wikimania political (such as for example inviting politicians to speak before us), and Sari Nusseibeh is very much about politics.
Even his affiliation with moderate/leftist organizations on the Israeli side of the political spectrum make this a political move in the inner Israeli political perspective of the conference, and we don't want to make Wikimania political even in this narrow sense.
We are not opposed to people trying to contact him, and I hope someone like Dror Kamir on our part might still do it, but we are somewhat reserved about his specific suitability here, because of unmistakeable political involvement.
Harel Cain
Wikimania 2011 local team
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 10:11, Muhammad Yahia
<shipmaster@gmail.com> wrote:
This is a contact I sent to this list almost a year ago. When I was asked to reach out to anyone and see if there is someone interested in coordinating with the WM11 team. I was told by my Palestinian-American friends that this university and its dean have campuses in East Jerusalem and the WB, making it easy for Israelis to contact. The dean's cv has his phone and email. It would be good if he is contacted to see if he is willing to help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_NusseibehOn Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Kim Bruning
<kim@bruning.xs4all.nl> wrote:
The problem is that BDS (and others?) are explicitly acting against wikimania. I'd love to hear more reports
on this. I think having a wikimania in haifa is actually going
to be beneficial to all parties. :-)
Strictly speaking, we don't actually know this to be a problem. There is no proof of the BDS campaign having dissuaded large numbers of potential attendees, especially from Arab countries. Any such potential attendees would have been dissuaded by other reasons, already discussed extensively on this and other lists, -- political climate in their countries, personal perception of attendance as implicit support of the Israeli government policy, etc..
By all means go on publicizing WM2011 among Arabic speakers. Once again, the local team has made it clear it is committed to helping anyone who would like to attend. But perhaps it's time to stop pretending it is entirely up to us whether Arabic speakers would be well-represented in this Wikimania or not?
Asaf
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Asaf Bartov
(personal opinion)
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Best Regards,
Muhammad Yahia
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