I seem to be missing the point here. I thought you guys were going to contact him in his capacity as the dean of the Al-Quds university, exploring how to cooperate with him on spreading the news about Wikimania among students and helping those who want to attend. Something which you guys have said repeatedly you are open to only if someone can find you a contact? I don't see how his political affiliations factor into the equation here.
It is disappointing to me that you guys repeatedly said you were willing to do outreach into the palestinian territory but you lack contacts. And then when contacts are available, as hard as it was to get them, you don't consider even talking to them because of their political views. I doubt I can find you any contacts that are 'apolitical' given the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And I am not even asking you to talk to someone with extreme views that might offend you, You yourself said he was a moderate. I am sad to say that at this point I am inclined to think that the whole outreach into under-privileged territories effort was not genuinely considered. On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Harel Cain <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Muhammad, > > The short answer is that we never contacted Sari Nusseibeh, and we're not > very satisfied with this situation. > > This is for a mixture of reasons, some of them mundane (nobody really > picked up this specific suggestion; we were all busy; we forgot about it; we > all assumed someone else will do it) and some of them more to the point - > first and foremost because he is perceived, at least in the Israeli public, > as a downright political figure, having held formal positions positions on > the Palestinian side. > > Clearly he's perceived as a moderate political figure, but that is totally > beside the point - we never meant to make Wikimania political (such as for > example inviting politicians to speak before us), and Sari Nusseibeh is very > much about politics. > > Even his affiliation with moderate/leftist organizations on the Israeli > side of the political spectrum make this a political move in the inner > Israeli political perspective of the conference, and we don't want to make > Wikimania political even in this narrow sense. > > We are not opposed to people trying to contact him, and I hope someone like > Dror Kamir on our part might still do it, but we are somewhat reserved about > his specific suitability here, because of unmistakeable political > involvement. > > Harel Cain > Wikimania 2011 local team > > > > > On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 10:11, Muhammad Yahia <[email protected]> wrote: > >> This is a contact I sent to this list almost a year ago. When I was asked >> to reach out to anyone and see if there is someone interested in >> coordinating with the WM11 team. I was told by my Palestinian-American >> friends that this university and its dean have campuses in East Jerusalem >> and the WB, making it easy for Israelis to contact. The dean's cv has his >> phone and email. It would be good if he is contacted to see if he is willing >> to help. >> >> http://sari.alquds.edu/cv_sari.htm >> http://www.alquds.edu/ >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Quds_University >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Nusseibeh >> >> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:34 AM, Asaf Bartov <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Kim Bruning <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> The problem is that BDS (and others?) are explicitly acting against >>>> wikimania. I'd love to hear more reports >>>> on this. I think having a wikimania in haifa is actually going >>>> to be beneficial to all parties. :-) >>>> >>> >>> Strictly speaking, we don't actually know this to be a problem. There is >>> no proof of the BDS campaign having dissuaded large numbers of potential >>> attendees, especially from Arab countries. Any such potential attendees >>> would have been dissuaded by other reasons, already discussed extensively on >>> this and other lists, -- political climate in their countries, personal >>> perception of attendance as implicit support of the Israeli government >>> policy, etc.. >>> >>> By all means go on publicizing WM2011 among Arabic speakers. Once again, >>> the local team has made it clear it is committed to helping anyone who would >>> like to attend. But perhaps it's time to stop pretending it is entirely up >>> to us whether Arabic speakers would be well-represented in this Wikimania or >>> not? >>> >>> Asaf >>> -- >>> Asaf Bartov >>> (personal opinion) >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Best Regards, >> Muhammad Yahia >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > > > -- > Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia
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