RMS, Hosts Must Support Boycott?

[Stan Goodman]

On Friday 10 June 2011 at 16:35:43 (GMT+2) Tom Balazs 
<tom123online at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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

Since Mr Stallman had so little sense as to assent to inflicting even 
the earlier ("milder") boycott rules on talks in Israel, it was 
scandalous for the local organizatiton to even consider seeking "kosher" 
venues for him. It's unfortunate that it took the revelation of the REAL 
rules to cause Israelis to realize what was being done to them.

The mind boggles at the notion that hostile organizations might be able 
to induce an Israeli organization to accept any kind of boycott of 
Israel, and thereby to seem to justify it.

Aside from which Mr Stallman's adventure into politics do him no credit.

> |------------------------------------------|
> |
> |    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/


-- 
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel