RMS, Hosts Must Support Boycott?

[Tom Balazs]

After Dr. Richard M. Stallman (RMS) cancelled his lecture at the University
of Haifa I tried to arrange an alternative meeting hall for him. Like some
other people I thought that all that was required was "not an Israeli
university" or perhaps "not a prominent symbol of the state".

Yesterday (9-Jun-11) RMS sent me a response which indicates that there is an
even bigger problem. According to him, "the Palestinians' boycott is so
strict that they object to [him giving lectures hosted by] all organizations
except those that support the boycott."

My opinion is that under such circumstances RMS should refuse to speak, or
at least have a "sudden and unavoidable scheduling conflict" which
necessitates cancelling his visit.

If this really is the situation then I will not be searching for lecture
halls for him and will not be attending his lectures either.

Tom

|------------------------------------------|
|    Tom Balazs
|    Haifa
|    tom123online at gmail.com
|------------------------------------------|

From: Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 17:58
Subject: Re: Fwd: A Lecture Hall for a Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman,
President of the Free Software Foundation
To: Tom Balazs <tom123online at gmail.com>
Cc: rms-assist at gnu.org


   Our theater is very busy during the month of June, and the date you had
   mentioned wouldwnt work.

My visit is in July, not June.  Maybe that was misunderstanding.

However, it seems that the Palestinians' boycott is so strict that
they object to all organizations except those that support the boycott.
I don't know whether they object if such an organization rents a hall.

   So I must charge the minimum cost of 750 N.I.S  in order to be able to
   operate the Theater.

How many dollars is that?
I have no idea whether I have this much in my pocket.

--
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
 Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/
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