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ICANN rejected Israel as meeting venue due to threat from Gaza and Iran

Kevin Murphy, July 24, 2018, 14:34:00 (UTC), Domain Policy

Israel was rejected as a possible venue for one of ICANN’s 2020 public meetings due to concerns about Middle East violence, DI has learned.
A proposal to host a meeting in Tel Aviv was discounted, with ICANN staff telling the board of directors that it is “not suitable for an ICANN meeting due to security concerns.”
“With the proximity to the Gaza strip and the escalation of an Iran/Israel conflict we feel it is best to avoid this region,” the board was told at its meeting last month.
Cost was also cited as a reason to avoid the city, though there was no mention of visa problems (which I imagine would be a concern for many community members).
Tel Aviv, which was proposed by a local registrar, was among five possible venues for ICANN’s mid-2020 Policy Forum that were rejected in favor of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The others, which all came from the Asia-Pacific region per ICANN’s regional rotation policy, were Macau (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia) and Adelaide (Australia).
It also appears that locations proposed by community members seem to get preference over those proposed by venues, such as convention centers, themselves.
The alternative proposals have come to light because ICANN neglected to redact confidential information from a set of board briefing documents (pdf) published last week. The unredacted information reads:

Other Hosting Proposals Received:

  • Macao, China: Yannis Li (DotAsia), Bonnie Chun (HKIRC) and Paco Xiao (MONIC) submitted a proposal. However, we found this location to be more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.
  • Auckland, New Zealand: Jordan Carter from InternetNZ submitted a proposal. However, we found this location to be more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.
  • Tel-Aviv, Israel: Yoav Keren from Domain The Net Technologies Ltd. submitted a proposal. However, we found this location to be more expensive than Kuala Lumpur and not suitable for an ICANN meeting due to security concerns. With the proximity to the Gaza strip and the escalation of an Iran/Israel conflict we feel it is best to avoid this region.
  • Sydney, Australia: Joanne Muscat from Business Events Sydney submitted a hosting proposal. However, this location was proposed by the meeting venue not a community member and is more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.
  • Adelaide, Australia: Jacqui Lloyd from Adelaide Convention Bureau submitted a proposal. However, this location was proposed by the meeting venue not a community member and is more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.

The same document also reveals that proposals to host ICANN’s 2020 Latin America meeting — which was ultimately awarded to Cancun, Mexico — were received from Lima, Peru and Monterrey, Mexico.
Monterrey was also rejected due to unspecified “security and accessibility concerns”.
The US State Department currently classifies Monterrey with a “Level 3 — Reconsider Travel” status, whereas Cancun has a lower “Level 2 — Exercise Increased Caution” status.
The unredacted text reads:

  • Lima, Peru: Johnny Laureano from the Asociación de Usuarios de Internet del Perú submitted a hosting proposal. The proposed convention center is still in the process of selecting a management company. The host has not followed through with a valid proposal.
  • Monterrey, Mexico: Monica Trevino from Cintermex Convention Center submitted a hosting proposal. The location was not suitable for an ICANN meeting due to security and accessibility concerns.

Paris, Budapest, The Hague, and Geneva — some of which had been scouted by ICANN as opposed to being proposed by third parties — were rejected as venues for the 2020 European meeting.
The unredacted document reads:

  • Paris, France: Laure Filloux from VIPARIS Palais des Congrès de Paris submitted a hosting proposal. However, this location was proposed by the meeting venue not a community member and is more expensive than Hamburg.
  • Budapest, Hungary: Balazs Szucs from HungExpo Budapest submitted a hosting proposal. This location was proposed by the meeting venue and was not suitable for an ICANN meeting.
  • The Hague, Netherlands: Identified by the ICANN meetings team as a possible location was also considered. The location was more expensive than Hamburg.
  • Geneva, Switzerland: Identified by the ICANN meetings team as a possible location was also considered. The location was more expensive than Hamburg.

The European meeting will instead take place in Hamburg at the invitation of local trade group eco and the city council.
The cost of each successful proposal, which seems to be the clincher in each case, is redacted in these documents.

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Comments (3)

  1. Volker Greimann says:
    July 25, 2018 at 7:39 am

    So price always wins?

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    July 25, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    This makes fine sense to me. There is a reason the internet governance and internet engineering conferences of the last 25 years have essentially rotated among a list of host cities like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Cancun, Montreal, Panama City (recently, at least), Montevideo, Amsterdam, Mauritius, Johannesburg, etc. These are cities that are relatively neutral, relatively safe, relatively inexpensive, and in many cases, very well experienced and well setup for large conferences.
    ICANN going to Israel would be insane.

    Reply
  3. Robert Stahl says:
    October 18, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    Boy, ICANN is banning every proper channel under the sun, CLAIMING TO BE NEUTRAL rather than NEUROTIC, Trumpy having our slate cleaned by supporting this TREASON of distribution rights, such boundary value problems in calculus, no less (just, insane), when the truly treasonous MUST lose everything. Good luck, brought to you by the Cog Mafia, distributed properly by Montagraph, plus I11LUMINATI.

    Reply

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