Free software guru Richard Stallman has cancelled speeches at Israeli universities after objections from Palestinian Authority Arabs, who paid for his ticket.
Stallman, who initiated the free software movement, said he was disappointed that he could not speak at Tel Aviv and Haifa universities, but told ITWire.com, "I had a choice of speaking in Palestine and cancelling those speeches, or not going at all and cancelling those speeches. I chose the former."
He explained, "Some Palestinians invited me to speak in Palestinian universities. I then arranged speeches in Israel afterwards since I would be there. When the Palestinian hosts found out about this, they said they would not pay for my tickets if I were going to speak at Israeli universities. They have a campaign of boycott of Israeli universities.
"I don't advocate a blanket boycott of Israeli universities. But I am not going to campaign against it either. I see where the Palestinians are coming from,” and he criticized the Israel’s “occupation,” the derogatory term for a Jewish presence in United Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
Stallman added that he nevertheless hopes to speak in Israel “although not at universities.”
His agreement to be banned from Israeli universities comes against the backdrop of his history of proclaiming freedoms.
Stallman once said in an interview, "Freedom is my priority. I’ve campaigned for freedom since 1983, and I am not going to surrender that freedom for the sake of a more convenient computer.”
Following Stallman’s cancellation in Israel, Israeli Society for Free and Open Source Software official Edward Aronowitz wrote him, “Boycotting the Israeli universities since you get funds from Palestinians means that you accepted the Palestinians' proprietary license. Neither you nor them [sic] want to help their neighbor. That is the meaning of what you are doing…. You should really re-consider the meaning of freedom, given the agreements you make.”