[Wikimania-l] minor issue with languages
Hmmm... That's interesting. According to the criterion Deryck Chan mentioned, I'm he-5, en-5, ar-5, fr-3 and es-2. In various occasions I was a teacher of he, en and ar, but I always write ar-3 because I can read and write quite easily though my speech fluency needs some improvement... But back to the problem itself - Is it just standard templates that are missing from the Wikimania 2011 website? Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
[Wikimania-l] A trip to Petra after Wikimania
Hi, Here are two useful links from Jordan Tourism Board: http://www.visitjordan.com/visitjordan_cms/GeneralInformation/GettingAround/BorderCrossings/tabid/105/Default.aspx - List of border crossing. My advice: Either go eastwards across the Lower Galilee from Haifa to Beit Shean, cross the border at Sheikh Hossein Bridge and continue southward in Jordan, or go southward along the Israeli coast, then go to Beersheba, then on the road to Eilat cross the border at the Wadi Araba Crossing (Petra is quite near). Don't use the Allenby/King Hossein Bridge because it is the main gate from and into the West Bank, which means three kinds of authorities (Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian), more people waiting in line, more forms to fill in and more potential headaches. According to this site, Jordanian visas are issued on the spot at the crossing. Note - unlike the Israeli authorities, the Jordanian authorities insist on stamping the passport itself. http://www.visitjordan.com/default.aspx?tabid=63 - Views of Petra on that site. It is considered one of the most remarkable sites in the region, and the most prominent tourist attraction in Jordan. Jordan is tourist-friendly and quite cheap. Most people can communicate in English. Please note that August falls on Ramadan, so most people you are going to meet in Jordan will be fasting during daylight hours. Be considerate. One more warning - this is August and Petra is in the middle of the desert. Temperature might rise as high as 40 centigrade. Cars, buses and most rooms are air-conditioned, but when you walk outside, cover yourself well with light clothes and drink a lot (but not in front of those who fast). Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
[Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
I personally contacted people from the Palestinian community of Israel and spread the word in the meetings I had with Palestinians from the West Bank. People showed some interest, some of them were not too acquainted with Wikipedia and asked questions, but apparently it didn't bring them to the registration page. Furthermore, I was responsible to the translation of the whole site into Arabic, including the landing page and registration page. This means that Wikimania in Haifa pops up in Arabic in Google or any other search engines. I also translated the press release about the event and I know it was sent to the major Arabic-language newspapers in the country. That said, I am more than willing to contact any person in the West Bank in order to promote Palestinian participation. Many Palestinians have permanent entry permits into Israel, so they can reach Haifa easily, and there are many with Jerusalemite residency, who also don't need any bureaucratic arrangements. In case some bureaucracy is required, I do my best effort, as I have the necessary phone numbers at hand. It is important to note that we encountered this year unprecedented attempts to discourage people, particularly Arab people, from coming to the event. I don't blame anyone, and I respect the freedom of speech of everybody, but it is very hard to promote an event among Arabic-speaking people, when there are FaceBook groups and blogs, some of them initiated by Wikipedians, calling upon Arab people not to attend, and even spreading false information. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
[Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Resp. to Thomas
Hello Thomas, In terms of accessibility, Israel is much more accessible to Palestinians and Jordanians than any other location suggested for Wikimania 2011. It is even more accessible to them than Alexandria, Egypt, the venue of Wikimania 2008, and I say it after I checked this matter with the relevant people. When Wikimania was last held in the Middle East, namely in Egypt, there was only one Palestinian who wished to participate, and he couldn't get a visa to Egypt from the Egyptian authorities. The EG authorities probably had their reasons, and I don't mention it in an attempt to blame someone, not at all. I just wanted to note, that even then, when Wikimania was held in an Arab country, not far away from the Palestinian Territories, the interest in the event within this community was extremely low. Many Palestinians can come to Haifa without our help. They can simply take a bus, as they do every day when they come to work in Israel. For some Palestinians the process is somewhat more complicated, but something that can certainly be handled, especially with the help of the organizers. As for Jordan, there were three Jordanians in Wikimania 2007 in Taipei. I met two of them also in Alexandria in 2008. I'm not sure whether there were more Jordanians in 2008. I didn't see any in Buenos Aires 2009. For a Jordanian, obtaining a visa requires some form filling at the embassy in Amman. After having the visa, s/he can simply take a bus to the border crossing, and then another bus to Haifa. Many Jordanians have families in northern Israel, so some of them don't even need accommodations. And yet they need to have interest in this event. One can lead the horse to the water, but one cannot make it drink. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS
Hello, Just to clarify a few points - 1. The term Palestinian-Arabs refers to people who identify themselves as part of the Palestinian People, but they hold various nationalities. Many of them are Israeli citizens, so they can arrive at Haifa just as any other Israeli (and like other Israelis, they might register at the last moment, since they don't need accommodations). Those who live in East Jerusalem are not necessarily Israeli nationals, but they have free access to any place in Israel (they hold Israeli IDs, which are more-or-less like Green Cards in the US). Those living in Jordan and have Jordanian nationality should obtain visa from the Israeli embassy in Amman. Those who live in the West Bank and are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority enter Israel with their Palestinian internal ID and a permit which the PA office obtain for them from the Israeli authorities (so they need to file the request at the local PA office). Many of them have a permanent permit - these are usually WB residents who work in Israel. The main problem is with residents of the Gaza Strip, due to the very delicate political situation there. It is possible to obtain permits for them too, but it requires some coordinations with the relevant authorities. I personally made some phone calls, and received detailed information about how to start the process, but unfortunately, I received no information about people from Gaza who actually filed requests to enter Israel for attending Wikimania. 2. Palestinians have good access to Internet. Currently, the Palestinian ISPs relies on the Israeli infrastructure, so it might seem as if they connect from Israel, though in many cases I saw Palestinian Territories as the designation of location for people connecting from the WB and Gaza. That said, Wikipedia is not very popular among Palestinians, as far as I can judge. Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects are extremely popular among Hebrew-speaking Israelis, but Arabic-speaking Israelis and Palestinians in the WB and Gaza are much more into writing blogs, posting comments in various Arabic-speaking web-forums etc. When I was interviewed in Arabic about Wikipedia, the Palestinian person who was interviewed with me was not a Wikipedian, but rather the head of a Palestinian bloggers' union. 3. I talked with some Egyptians who considered coming to Haifa. It wouldn't be fair to reveal information given to me in private conversations, but I can say that the current situation in Egypt poses unexpected difficulties to Egyptians who wish to visit Israel. The Israeli embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Alexandria work normally, and visa procedures have not changed, and yet being listed as someone who crossed the border to Israel is something many of those I've talked with prefer to avoid at the current state of affairs. I'm afraid this is beyond the control of any of us, and it is an unexpected development of the past five months or so. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
[Wikimania-l] global south strategy meeting, 2011-08-02, wikimania preconf prog
Hello, I asked two people from the Ben Gurion University's Africa Center to attend Wikimania for as much as they can, in order to talk with developers and other people involved in offline projects and devnations initiatives. These two students were part of the Israeli mission to Santchou, Cameroon, earlier this year, and they had a lot of success with installing offline versions of the French Wikipedia there. I wrote about it in Hebrew on wm-il's blog, and Amir sent an English self-translation to the Foundation's blog, I hope it would be published soon. Anyway, one of these students is engaged in other volunteering projects throughout the summer, but this time in Israel, so he said that if he would be in the vicinity of Haifa on 2-3 August he will come to talk with anyone who would like to hear about his experience. The other student agreed to come on Friday to talk about their success story during the main event. She was unsure whether she could come on 2-3 August too due to her working schedule (it ain't cheap being a student in this country...) Anyway, I suggest anyone involved in the devnations initiatives be in or around the hall, where the talk about Africa is held, so we could gather with her after the talk and ask some useful questions. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Boycott Wikimania 2011
I didn't mean to tell this story, but I feel I have to. Two days before I went to Wikimania 2008 I heard on the news about a warning on behalf of the Israeli authorities for Israeli citizens not to visit Egypt due to risk of kidnapping and attacks. I looked up the number of this government office and told them there was an important international conference in Alexandria and urged them to publish more details about how Israelis can get there safely. It was obvious that this government office didn't know about Wikimania. They told me that there were specific alerts, but going by plane, rather than by land, would be safe. I also called the Israeli embassy in Cairo. They told me things were not as bad as they might have sounded in the news, but recommended going by plane from Tel Aviv to Cairo. I spread the news among local Wikimedians. Those who planned to go, told me they would go by land anyway and so we crossed the border two days later. All went perfectly fine and we felt safe. While in Alexandria I received a phone call from the Israeli radio asking to interview me about my experience. I was interviewed twice - to the Hebrew and Arabic departments. I honestly don't expect anyone to do things which might involve risk of any kind - if someone think that visiting Israel might be harmful for him/her due to political, social or any other reason - I respect that. If someone think s/he should avoid visiting Israel due to his political views - I can't help that. It is his/her right to choose his political views and act accordingly, whether I like it or not. All I am asking is to be fair, respect the effort done by fellow Wikimedians, and especially not to spread false information. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Boycott extremists. Support Wikimania 2011
mattsatchwell, There is a word in Hebrew which describes what you are doing here - chutzpa. You have the nerve of making political propaganda in a forum that was not meant for political discussion. You can spread your propaganda in many places on the net, but you chose to do it here in order to force disruption. You know well that propaganda is about half-truths, and this is exactly what you are doing: name dropping, inaccurate and incomplete citations and misleading arguments. I am NOT going to comment on you allegations here, because this is absolutely not the place for that and because people here are intelligent enough to recognize you manipulations. You are enjoying the freedom of speech and keep enjoying it even though you abuse it. Dror K ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Boycott Wikimania 2011
Just to give you some background on the issue - There is currently an aggressive campaign by certain pro-Palestinian groups to boycott Israel. The campaigners are well organized and they will probably continue to send messages to this mailing list. The campaign is political, however it is not supported by any government, nor is it supported by the Palestinian Authority or any of the moderate Palestinian organizations. After about four years of growing cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians (despite the remaining disagreements, which are hard to resolve), there are people and organizations who try to pour fuel on the extinguishing fire. Unfortunately, they do not respect this forum and its participants. I would also like to note that when Alexandria was rightfully chosen to host Wikimania (and its team did a wonderful work), there were Israelis among the bid team and the sponsors. The question of the Arab-Israeli conflict was never raised and it was deemed totally irrelevant. When Wikimania was held in Taiwan, I personally called the Taiwanese representations in Tel Aviv and Amman to check if they can issue a visa to an Egyptian citizen who wanted to participate and had difficulties as there was no Taiwanese representation in Egypt. I hope this is the last message in this subject. Dror K -Original Message- From: wikimania-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org To: wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Fri, Apr 1, 2011 6:07 am Subject: Wikimania-l Digest, Vol 61, Issue 1 Send Wikimania-l mailing list submissions to wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to wikimania-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org You can reach the person managing the list at wikimania-l-ow...@lists.wikimedia.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of Wikimania-l digest... Today's Topics: 1. Re: Boycott Wikimania 2011 (Evangeline Han) 2. Re: Boycott Wikimania 2011 (Anonyme) 3. Re: Israel = apartheid (Anonyme) -- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 09:03:37 +0700 From: Evangeline Han evanbe...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Boycott Wikimania 2011 To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: aanlktimskah+3u8lkmdh_vtjfqga5fb6arhh8vvwc...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hey guys, Just a thought. If you want to boycott Wikimania, there is no need to announce it on the list. We're not interested if you've already made up your mind to boycott. It's pretty immature to boycott and then announce it to everyone... unless you're canvassing...? --Evangeline On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 5:12 AM, Alejandro Farah fa...@astro.unam.mx wrote: I agree with the boycott... I am sorry about Palestinians, but more sorry about human stupidity... On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Mohamed Mostafa ouda mmusta...@gmail.com wrote: Hi All I Also decided to boycott of Wikimania 2011 due to Israel's brutal politics against Palestinians . On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:51 PM, Anonyme cautio...@gmail.com wrote: But fine, while you're there, think about the oppression that the people of Gaza are under... Have a fine time C Le 2011-03-31 ? 17:38, Gerard Meijssen a ?crit : Hoi. I am really happy that Haifa will not be missing among all the Wikimanias I will be at. I will be happy to meet many of my friends and I will drink in Haifa to absent friends. I hope we will have great streaming so that you can get an impression of how awesome Wikimania is. Thanks, GerardM On 31 March 2011 23:08, Anonyme cautio...@gmail.com wrote: I decided to do a complete boycott of Wikimania 2011 due to Israel's politics and the situation in the Gaza Strip and the illegal colonization in the West Bank. ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Mohamed Mostafa Ouda ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- --- Dr. Alejandro Farah Instituto de Astronomia, UNAM, CU M?xico DF, CP 04510 52+55+56223906 http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/~farah ---
