Re: Debconf in Israel

[Nasir El-Amin <nasir_elamin@protonmail.com>]

This isn’t true and your going to hear claims that Muslims are blocked by Israel being false from Israelis as they like to pretend it doesn’t occur.

The reality however is Israel even blocks Muslims from non middle eastern countries like Indonesia: https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-05/israel-blocks-indonesian-passport-holders-from-entering-country/9835744?pfmredir=sm

Also if you could somehow get in the visa stamp of Israel can result in you being banned from other countries including Saudi Arabia which will not allow a Muslim with a Israeli stamp to make Hajj.

Either way this ignores the fact that Israel has been murdering Muslims for countless years and the state of Israel sits on occupied Palestinian land. Debian having a conference in contested land where military conflict and oppressive acts are occurring is unacceptable.

We (the Muslim Community of Linux Users) are working on a larger response to Debconf in Israel.

If you at all believe in social justice and oppose human rights violations then you will not attend a Debconf in Israel.

On Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 1:32 AM, Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir@cohens.org.il> wrote:

Yesterday Nasir El-Amin wrote to this list a message.

I was not subscribed to the list and thus cannot reply directly.

The message did raise one relevant issue:

> Palestinian or Muslim Debian contributors won’t be allowed by Israel to attend Debconf.

That is certainly not the case. There may be an issue with people of certain countries (e.g. Iran, Iraq and Lebanon) or even lesser issues with people from Egypt, Jordan and Palestine/The Palestinian Authority. However as experience has shown with previous similar conferences (specifically the conferences held by Wikimedia: Wikimania in 2010, a Hackathon in 2016 and GLAM in 2018), this can mostly be avoided by working with the right people.

This is one of the issues we looked into before submitting the bid.

We're certainly looking forward for Palestinian and Muslim contributors to attend just as any others.

-- Tzafrir