Re: Debconf in Israel

[Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir@cohens.org.il>]

Hi,

On 21/03/2019 18:10, Nasir El-Amin wrote:

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

From what I see, Indonesia is on the list of countries that require a visa request. I don't know the policy. I do remember from my talks with the Wikimedia people that someone from Indonesia attended one of the recent conferences. We'll need to check all of those issues.

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.

I think that this is already in the Wiki: for this reason the Israeli Authorities don't stamp passports in the borders. One extra good feature of this is that it allows you to bypass Border Control if you're careful enough[1]. However when you pass on land directly to Jordan, the Jordanians authorities will stamp that in your passport. Israelis who make a Hajj need to use a work around: using special arrangement with the Jordanian (and indirectly: also the Saudi-) government, they get temporary passports in Jordan and use them to travel to Saudi Arabia.

-- Tzafrir

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[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bar-association-chair-indicted-for-allegedly-smuggling-woman-into-country/