I appreciate your concern Harel.
Warm thank yous
Ant
On 8/11/11 10:50 AM, Harel Cain wrote:
We at Wikimedia Israel are not ignoring the stories told on this
thread, actually we're taking them very much to heart.
We are now considering a strong letter of complaint to various
government agencies and a demand for formal written apology. Details
will follow once we have decided on our course of action.
Harel Cain
Secretary, Wikimedia Israel
On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:07, James Hare <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml
<http://church.of.emacs.ml>" <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> On 08/10/2011 06:05 PM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> In both cases I was traveling alone. And in both cases I was
myself, a
>> US citizen whose parents and name and skin color came from
South Asia.
>> I can't pass as anything else.
>
> This is simply racism and harassment. There can be no excuse for
that
> kind of treatment.
> If this is the way even a citizen of the western world is
treated, I can
> understand very well why there were (almost?) no members of the Arab
> world in Israel.
>
> I find it regrettable that next Wikimania is going to be in
Washington
> D.C. Airport harassment might not be as severe as in Israel, but
perhaps
> severe enough so that Arab Wikimedians are prevented or
discouraged from
> attending.
>
> Don't get me wrong, Wikimania in Israel was fantastic and D.C. will
> probably be, too, but we have to focus more on accessibility for
*all*
> Wikimedians.
>
> Regards,
> Tobias
>
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<mailto:[email protected]>
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While no one has the power to exempt anyone from security checks
(in fact, whenever former Secretary of State Colin Powell travels,
he gets the full check to show that everyone has to follow the
rules), we can coordinate with TSA, tell them about our conference
(including how tech-oriented some of the attendees are), and ask
them for advice to make the security check process as simple as
possible. My impression, though, is that while Israeli security
focuses on you as a person, TSA mostly focuses on your stuff.
Follow all their rules (take out laptop for separate x-ray scan,
only small bottles of liquid, etc.) and I think you will be fine,
but unfortunately I only have the perspective of a white US citizen.
I actually think the bigger obstacle will be obtaining a visa, for
those who don't live in visa exempt countries. As mentioned
earlier, we will do everything in our power to make the process
easier; we will even be looking into visa scholarships. It helps
that the US State Department knows what Wikipedia is and that they
have sent people to two Wikimanias, 2006 and 2011.
James
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--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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