[pytester]

Making the decision to host a conference in Israel in the first place is a form of political posturing, as is message censorship. If they truly wanted to be apolitical (and it appears that Alexander Wirt very much does not) they could have held it somewhere more neutral (e.g. Turkey).

[tompccs]

Are you serious? There was an article on HN just yesterday about how Turkey censored Wikipedia for two years.

I think a lot of Israeli engineers would just like to be able to host conferences without it turning into a geopolitical debate.

[pytester]

>Are you serious? There was an article on HN just yesterday about how Turkey censored Wikipedia for two years.

And yet it would maximize those who would be able to attend. Both Israelis and Arabs can fly to Turkey pretty easily.

>I think a lot of Israeli engineers would just like to be able to host conferences without it turning into a geopolitical debate

I'm sure a lot of North Korean and Venezuelan engineers would love that too, but until the Israeli government ends racial apartheid the chances of it not turning into a geopolitical debate are zero.

[e12e]

It made sense to boycott South Africa during apartheid, and it makes sense to boycott Israel today.

[Udik]

I can understand it, but how can you expect to keep living normally as if nothing was happening, when your army's snipers are shooting live bullets on protesters and 10% of your population lives on illegally occupied territories?

This is not "a geopolitical debate", this is a fundamental human rights issue.

[DoofusOfDeath]

I don't have any inside knowledge on this. But I would think choosing any particular country could be interpreted as posturing by some group.