[Wikimania-l] CD

[Florence Devouard]

I was not asked for a CD, but when I showed the 3-4 pages printed on 
purpose to confirm my attendance, I was told I should have received 
another document for the security. I just said "no, I did not".

When asked about my Egypt stamp, my answer was straight "Wikipedia, 
annual conference each time in a different city (I listed them), this 
year in Haifa. Great time".

When asked why attending this conference was of any interest to me, I 
answered sweetly that I was a speaker. I felt that they liked this answer ;)

I entered the airport at the same time than Teemu. We went through the 
same procedure, in particular a different security line for the 
hand-luggage (with no queue... contrariwise to others). They had a 
special system for electronic gear. It felt as if their checking gate 
was more modern and giving finer results than the regular one. 3 years 
ago, I had this security person telling me that my laptop was a fake 
because I could not start Internet Explorer. This year, the lady asked 
me whether my (11 inch book air) laptop was actually a laptop or a ipad. 
It was put in a special padded box for scanning.

In an hour, we were all set.

However, other French people did not have the same luck. After 3 hours 
of control, items were confiscated, some with a ticket receipt, some 
without anything. Staff in Paris airport said it was unlikely it would 
be recovered. Another wikipedian mentionned "behind the curtains" search.

No bad ill toward the really wonderful organizers of Wikimania (you 
really rocked !), but to me, this behavior at borders security goes 
beyond what I consider acceptable. Even if it has no obvious outcome, I 
would really like that those who had bad experience report it either to 
their embassy or to Israel officials. Somehow, I think that a 3 hours 
check, with body search and confiscation of items, for citizens who show 
really no sign of being dangerous for the State of Israel and which are 
leaving the country (not entering it) and doing so in non-Israelian 
flight companies, is simply not respectful of human rights. And as any 
situation of abuse, just trying to go under the radar and regretting 
that it went so bad, is passively accepting what is not okay is giving 
the wrong message and calling for further abuse.

Florence




On 8/10/11 9:47 AM, Liam Wyatt wrote:
> I would suggest that it's not about "the CD" itself, but anything to prove your attendance at the conference you said you went to. So, keep your attendee badge easily available. The conference bag, the printed schedule or other things that you picked up at Wikimania would be good. Just a suggestion,
> -Liam
>
> On 10/08/2011, at 5:37, WereSpielChequers<werespielchequers at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> I'm in Jerusalem for a few more days, can anyone suggest how I can
>> obtain one of these Wikimania CDs or what it could contain?
>>
>> WereSpielChequers
>>
>> On 9 August 2011 20:22, Nathan<nawrich at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Harel Cain<harel.cain at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>> All credit goes to Arthur Schnitzler and his beautiful novella
>>>> "Traumnovelle", on which Kubrick's movie is based.
>>>>
>>>> It never ceases to amaze me what a huge diffrence between the treatment that
>>>> visitors and locals get at TLV. Even though I fly out quite often, for many
>>>> years now my longest questioning was maybe 2 minutes, and my luggage was not
>>>> manually searched at all.
>>>>
>>>> Harel
>>> It doesn't seem amazing at all to me that El Al invests less suspicion
>>> in Jewish citizens of Israel, but that's just me :P
>>>
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