My opinion is simple. Israel is not a good place to have such an international event as Wikimania. I wouldn't vote for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE and other countries that are hard for many people to get into. Having such a conversation isn't the point of Wikimania. The fact that a team is amazingly active shouldn't be a reason to make this annual, exciting and useful meeting so complicated and dangerous for so many people.
I can see why the Wikimedia Foundation may not be so interested in taking one side in any political/ethical debate outside its main mission. That's reasonable and understandable. But in my opinion the whole thing is about picking a place that is a 'good' host.
Whether we can do something to solve the major issues of Wikimania 2011 or not, we should seriously think of adding a standard for Wikimania hosts: that they need to be generally easily reachable for the vast majority of the Wikimedia community.
Poland was great. I loved it. I mean I really loved having meetings in such 'peaceful' countries without such debates. Why not? There are many of them.
[Historically, the part below was written before the one that's above, something you may feel and notice! :)]
This is bullshit. There are always people who for instance never take an air flight - should we also complain that they do not have an opportunity to travel to Wikimania which is on a different continent?
That does not make any sense. Many people cannot, legally and socially, go to Israel and that's a fact not merely an opinion or a (legitimate and reasonable) choice.
Turkey is no problem, Turkish citizens can, may and do visit Israel. Also, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunesia, and Mauretania are no problem. Algeria I would need to check.
I dunno about Turkey, but no, it's impossible for people from the other countries to visit Israel for social reasons and these reasons cannot be ignored.
it ultimately is a personal decision of whether or not a person wants to go.
Sure, it *is* your personal decision to make yourself at risk of serious consequences. Read below.
there is no way to get a visa on a separate paper, even if you get a stamp from immigration separately that visa in all likelihood is going to be there.
That, simply, changes everything.
As explained on http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Visas, there are various ways to attain a visa entry to Israel even if you live in a country with no Israeli embassies.
The page doesn't say anything about Visas on a blank paper, but only the stamps. Also "Passport stamping" talks about "those countries may also search for Jordanian/Egyptian exit stamps from land borders with Israel".