(BDS OFFTOPIC) Re: Venue for RMS

[Omer Zak]

On Wed, 2022-05-18 at 18:54 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > From: Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il>
> > Date: Wed, 18 May 2022 18:34:58 +0300
> > 
> > Is he the same RMS who boycotted Israeli universities at 2011
> > happily
> > surrendering to demands of Palestinians - without even making a
> > token
> > effort to ask if Israelis are willing to take over his trip's
> > finances
> > so that Palestinians won't have to pay for his non-boycotting trip
> > to
> > Israel and Palestine?
> > 
> > If yes, I urge the TAU and HUJI people not to help him.
> 
> He's also the same RMS who single-handedly jump-started the GNU
> project and the whole Free Software movement, and wrote some of the
> tools me and you are running every day on our GNU/Linux systems.

Several people ignored this history when they threw him out of FSF due
to some attitudes that he had and which are unacceptable to today's
Cancel culture.

We do not have to follow their footsteps. It is enough to ask if he has
anything new to tell us about his stuff.

> And yes, his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are skewed and
> sometimes border on the silly, but if you think boycotting us is
> wrong, then why do you suggest boycotting him?  Why is it that a
> single point of disagreement is enough to call for an ostracism?

I would not boycott him due to his views on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Not even if he'd advocate for the DS part of BDS.
My issue with him is that HE BOYCOTTED ISRAELI INSTITUTIONS not
approved by the Palestinians. He supported, by his actions, the B part
of BDS.

When there is a boycott, it is impossible to discuss, to argue, to
express disagreement (or even agreement).

He chose to boycott. He should bear the consequences of this choice.
I
don't think we'll lose by this. If he has anything really new to tell
the world, we'll get to know it some way or other.
-- 
Any legal limit to self defense means that there is no right for self
defense at all.  This is because the aggressors would exploit those
legal limits to render their victims totally defenseless.
My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/

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