Posted on July 26, 2011 by Palestinian BDS National Committee
Occupied Palestine- Wikimania’s decision to hold its annual conference this August in Israel despite its ongoing occupation, colonialism and apartheid can only be seen by Palestinians and international supporters of a just peace as feeding Israel’s impunity and helping it to cover up its grave violations of international law and Palestinian rights. Given Israel’s intensifying ethnic cleansing in occupied Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and the Naqab (Negev), its deadly siege on Gaza, and the spread of its illegal colonial settlements, any international conference held in Israel cannot but be a political decision that insists on colluding with Israel. It is also a deep insult to Palestinian civil society which has almost unanimously called for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fully abides by its obligations under international law. Furthermore, in light of the recent revelation that Wikimania is to be partially sponsored by the East Jerusalem Development Company (EJDC)[1], a state-owned company involved in colonial activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls on Wikimedia to reject this sponsorship and calls for the event to be moved from Israel. If it fails to do both, we call on all people of conscience to boycott this Wikimania conference of complicity and shame.