Absolutely if someone does come from a country that has laws against
their attending then we should do our best to keep them safe. I hope
that my concerns turn out to be overcautious, but I do worry that we
have some young, enthusiastic and occasionally naive editors, and we
could have a fellow editor attend who for decades to come lives in
fear of being exposed as the Wikimedian from his or her country who
broke the law against going to Israel. And yes I've heard the argument
that some of the countries that have laws against their citizens going
to Israel don't currently do much to enforce those laws. But it is
that sort of complacency and short termism that makes me genuinely
fearful that we could have someone getting into serious trouble
because they broke their country's law against attending an event in
Israel.
There are fine lines between enabling people to break a law and
encouraging or discouraging them from doing so.
But regardless of all that the decision was taken many months ago to
hold Wikimania in Haifa. The time to debate that decision is long
past, what we should concentrate on now is making the event a success
and enabling more virtual participation, as in my view that is the
biggest opportunity at this stage to increase participation. If people
are going to come in person presumably they have already booked.
WSC
WereSpielChequers
WSC
On 6 July 2011 11:09, church.of.emacs.ml
<church.of.emacs.ml(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
On 07/06/2011 11:13 AM, WereSpielChequers wrote:
Encouraging Wikimedians who live in countries
where it would be
illegal to visit Israel to break the laws of the country they live in
and attend such a public event strikes me as inappropriate and
unethical (lobbying to change a law is something I see as very
different encouraging others to break a law).
Slightly OT, but I depending on how you meant this, I disagree.
We should make it clear that it's their risk to break the law, but if
they are willing to take that risk, I don't have any problem with that
and in fact I think in that case we should help them any way we can.
It's the Wikimedians who break the law we should protect, not unjust
laws themselves. If a Wikimedian feels reasonably safe traveling to
Israel, even though it might be illegal, he deserves our support.
Of course that doesn't mean that we should talk people into taking risks
that they don't want to take (and if that's all you meant to say, I
completely agree :))
--Tobias
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