RMS, Hosts Must Support Boycott?

[Orr Dunkelman]

One can think of a few action plans:

1. Who cares? RMS is known to be somewhat awkward, and his behavior of
"hey I'm coming, oh, I'm coming only if it is not a univ., oh, wait a
second, I cannot come unless this is the boycott offices in Israel",
does not add to him much.

The advantage of this approach is that we do not need to do nothing.
Main problem: This alienates both RMS (which will happen anyway) and
the Israeli FOSS community (there is a reason you will never ever ever
hear Bill Gates saying something of this form).

2. Boycotting RMS until he apologizes for this behaviour.

Advantage: we take a zionist stand point, proving to the Israeli
public that we do not share the view point of RMS. Dis-advantage:
seriously, are we 4-year olds playing "Chilba's"?

3. Start sending RMS personal emails - won't work. It did not work
before, won't work now. I would avoid sending nickels. The guy did not
hear google answers queries of the form "750 ILS in USD".

4. Approaching FSF and explain our problem with this type of behavior.
Explaining to FSF that they lose face in this instance.

(do note that 4 is independent of 1,2, and 3).


2011/6/10 Steve G. <wordz2u at gmail.com>:
> I think RMS does not have any intention of speaking, and is the OSS/FSF?GNU
> version of what is known as a cock-tease, though he seems more like a plain
> schmuck from a distance.
>
> He should not speak, nor even visit Israel. He should support freedom of
> expression in the west bank and Gaza by staying there.
>
> Personally, maybe each one of us should send the poor guy a nickel.
>
> Z.
>
> 2011/6/10 Tom Balazs <tom123online at gmail.com>
>>
>> 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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>>
>
>
>
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>
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-- 
Orr Dunkelman,
Orr.Dunkelman at gmail.com

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