On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 22:35, Harel Cain <[email protected]> wrote: > 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, this Wikimania is anyway highly influenced by politics, no matter what we want; which includes this thread. If Sari Nusseibeh is willing to help, you should take that help. I am sure that he is a reasonable person, who would try to avoid making possible problems to us. _______________________________________________ Wikimania-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
