For me, i think it helped a lot to bring a printed version of that
announcement from Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Whenever they
asked me about what i will do/was doing there, i showed that piece of
paper and then my questions were much more easier than those that some
of you reported here. The most strange question was "why Wikipedia needs
volunteers". So maybe those talkings between Wikimedia Israel and the
airport staff showed some results and seems a good idea for every future
Wikimania. Every country has some restrictions to visitors coming from
some other country, i guess, so all we can do is trying to facilitate
these procedures, and i'm sure Israeli team made their best on it.
In Brazil, as in Israel, the security guards were very kind, and all i
can say is that El-Al is too complicated (messy, disorganized), and i
have to spend some hours waiting in wrong lines because they couldn't
explain me where to go. In my way back, i remember a cap that i saw in
Jerusalem: "my job is so secret i even don't know what i'm doing". I
think this perfectly applies for El-Al, too. xD
Castelo
Em 11/08/2011 08:03, Itzik Edri escreveu:
Hey,
We reads every one of yours emails and twittets. I feel shame that
things like that happen to part of the participates, but other things
also need to say - it not happen to everyone, and this is the
Israeli security process.
We talked before, and also today with the airport - they know about
Wikimania group, and they also to expedite this process.. The manger
told us today that August is the most busy month on Ben Gurion - They
doing as much as they can to make things more quickly for
Wikimania participates (so again SHOW YOUR TAGS!), but they also
have security guidelines, that they cannot', in any case, exceed them.
The security of the other passengers is on their highest priority.
The airport security has been asked again to make things easier for
you, and the staff is doing as much as they can to help you - if their
is specifies problematic cases, please report things to us and we will
try to check that with them. They really listen to us and want to help
us and you - but again, their is still orders and guidelines that they
must to do. Don't know what they, and they of course can't tell us how
things works and their individual decision (as only small part of the
450 participates from abroad has "suffer"..)
Itzik
On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:50 AM, Harel Cain <harel.cain(a)gmail.com
<mailto:harel.cain@gmail.com>> wrote:
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(a)gmail.com
<mailto:messedrocker@gmail.com>> wrote:
On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml
<http://church.of.emacs.ml>"
<church.of.emacs.ml(a)googlemail.com
<mailto: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
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
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
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l