5 ms·

PR won't be merged because the contributor is an Israeli

83 points by oferzelig 6y ago

runawaybottle 6y ago
How close is American/China from this level of restriction?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  Extremely far. It'd be extraordinarily costly - imagine every Chinese national SWE having to leave American companies - and in the US probably unlawful to impose.
  - coolspot 6y ago
    US somehow managed to lawfully (at the time) send all Japanese-American to detention camps, though.
    - sudosysgen 6y ago
      Concentration camps.
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  Way far. A lot of these restrictions were imposed by the Arab states in the very early days of Israel's "nationhood" and haven't been lifted since, so you don't have to expel people to do this. If US/China did this there would be mass expulsions on an India-Pakistan partition level
aronpye 6y ago
Isn’t that a breach of US anti-boycott law, that Github as a US based company has to enforce?
- throwawaynothx 6y ago
  whispers huawei
  - k12sosse 6y ago
    You mean the Chinese puppet built with strings made from stolen IP?
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  In the US a blanket anti-boycott law would be unconstitutional to enforce. Government contractors in some states (maybe federally) are subject to anti-BDS restrictions, but to my knowledge GitHub isn't one. Also, GitHub as an organization is not boycotting Israel, one of the users of its site is. The law / requirement is to state that you (i.e. the gov't contractor in question) will not boycott Israel. But it doesn't say anything about your customers also abiding by that provision.
  - aronpye 6y ago
    https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac Who Is Covered by the Laws? The antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) apply to the activities of U.S. persons in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States. The term "U.S. person" includes all individuals, corporations and unincorporated associations resident in the United States. Conduct that may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited under the EAR includes: Agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies. Agreements to discriminate or actual discrimination against other persons based on race, religion, sex, national origin or nationality. —- I would say that discrimination clearly applies in this case, and individuals do have a responsibility under the EAR.
    - rswail 6y ago
      The person "discriminating" is the person that rejected the PR, which they did being subject to the laws of Iran. Github neither agreed to refuse, actually refused, agreed to discriminate, or actually discriminated against the person proposing the PR. Github aren't responsible for some code of conduct regarding whether or not a repo owner will accept unsolicted (or solicited) PRs. In fact, Github is directly engaged in blocking users from NK, Syria and Iran under the US law. They have to, it's the law that has jurisdiction over Github. https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-countries/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-coun...
renewiltord 6y ago
Can never stand it when a government steps in between two individuals enriching their shared human experience in a way that harms no one else. Fuck. That. Shit. May the culture of human independence and individual freedom win over this authoritarian bullshit.
- winter_blue 6y ago
  > Can never stand it when a government steps in between two individuals enriching their shared human experience in a way that harms no one else. The US does this all the time with its horribly restrictive work visa policy. Some startup wants to hire a passionate engineer from abroad -- and what happens? The US govt says you can't. Paul Graham wrote about it back in December 2014: http://paulgraham.com/95.html http://paulgraham.com/95.html The US hates immigrants so much that there was at one point an attempt to create a floating ship in international waters near the Bay Area (without being actually in it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed And lastly, the craziness of American xenophobia (especially the puzzling intense hatred of skilled immgirants no less) can seen in full blast, right here on HN, any time high-skilled work visas come up -- a lot of people right here on HN just can't wait force every last software developer (even those earning $200k) out of the country for the simple crime of them not being born here. I've conversed with immigrant-haters on HN for a long time[1], like for years. I've never understood why they hate me and other immigrants so much. It's puzzling, tbh. It's very tiring and emotionally tiring (when they effectively repeatedly tell you to "gtfo".) I've given up on engaging with them directly. [1] One example where a user named ones_and_zeros essentially tells me to gtfo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11313462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11313462 (see the parent of that comment as well). And I was in fact actually even scolded by dang for bringing it up later on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13599190 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13599190 dang is right in the sense that it is indeed an extremely emotional topic for me. These people are trying to (quite literally) destroy my life, and want to force me out of what's been my home for 10+ years. But I've learned it's actually best for one's own emotional/mental well-being to not engage with them.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
yuriko 6y ago
Title is misleading
- colourgarden 6y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. My immediate reaction was that I was about to read some scandalous anti-semitism (as I'm sure you did too). The truth is a little more bureaucratic with no malice or discrimination from either contributor (I won't comment on the law itself!). The title is a little click-baity but I'm not sure how it could be more accurate?
  - sam_goody 6y ago
    It appears to be a decision by a package owner (armancodes), based on Iranian law. The title sounds like it was Github's decision current title: "GitHub: PR won't be merged because..."
  - quenix 6y ago
    How about “Maintainer forced to reject PR due to Israel-Iran conflict”?
phonon 6y ago
Possibly better link: https://blog.yiddishe-kop.com/posts/my-pr-was-denied-by-iranian-law https://blog.yiddishe-kop.com/posts/my-pr-was-denied-by-iran...

83 points by oferzelig 6y ago

runawaybottle 6y ago

How close is American/China from this level of restriction?

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Extremely far. It'd be extraordinarily costly - imagine every Chinese national SWE having to leave American companies - and in the US probably unlawful to impose.
- coolspot 6y ago
  US somehow managed to lawfully (at the time) send all Japanese-American to detention camps, though.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    Concentration camps.
notsureaboutpg 6y ago
Way far. A lot of these restrictions were imposed by the Arab states in the very early days of Israel's "nationhood" and haven't been lifted since, so you don't have to expel people to do this. If US/China did this there would be mass expulsions on an India-Pakistan partition level

aronpye 6y ago

Isn’t that a breach of US anti-boycott law, that Github as a US based company has to enforce?

throwawaynothx 6y ago
whispers huawei
- k12sosse 6y ago
  You mean the Chinese puppet built with strings made from stolen IP?
notsureaboutpg 6y ago
In the US a blanket anti-boycott law would be unconstitutional to enforce. Government contractors in some states (maybe federally) are subject to anti-BDS restrictions, but to my knowledge GitHub isn't one. Also, GitHub as an organization is not boycotting Israel, one of the users of its site is. The law / requirement is to state that you (i.e. the gov't contractor in question) will not boycott Israel. But it doesn't say anything about your customers also abiding by that provision.
- aronpye 6y ago
  https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac Who Is Covered by the Laws? The antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) apply to the activities of U.S. persons in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States. The term "U.S. person" includes all individuals, corporations and unincorporated associations resident in the United States. Conduct that may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited under the EAR includes: Agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies. Agreements to discriminate or actual discrimination against other persons based on race, religion, sex, national origin or nationality. —- I would say that discrimination clearly applies in this case, and individuals do have a responsibility under the EAR.
  - rswail 6y ago
    The person "discriminating" is the person that rejected the PR, which they did being subject to the laws of Iran. Github neither agreed to refuse, actually refused, agreed to discriminate, or actually discriminated against the person proposing the PR. Github aren't responsible for some code of conduct regarding whether or not a repo owner will accept unsolicted (or solicited) PRs. In fact, Github is directly engaged in blocking users from NK, Syria and Iran under the US law. They have to, it's the law that has jurisdiction over Github. https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-countries/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-coun...

renewiltord 6y ago

Can never stand it when a government steps in between two individuals enriching their shared human experience in a way that harms no one else. Fuck. That. Shit. May the culture of human independence and individual freedom win over this authoritarian bullshit.

winter_blue 6y ago
> Can never stand it when a government steps in between two individuals enriching their shared human experience in a way that harms no one else. The US does this all the time with its horribly restrictive work visa policy. Some startup wants to hire a passionate engineer from abroad -- and what happens? The US govt says you can't. Paul Graham wrote about it back in December 2014: http://paulgraham.com/95.html http://paulgraham.com/95.html The US hates immigrants so much that there was at one point an attempt to create a floating ship in international waters near the Bay Area (without being actually in it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed And lastly, the craziness of American xenophobia (especially the puzzling intense hatred of skilled immgirants no less) can seen in full blast, right here on HN, any time high-skilled work visas come up -- a lot of people right here on HN just can't wait force every last software developer (even those earning $200k) out of the country for the simple crime of them not being born here. I've conversed with immigrant-haters on HN for a long time[1], like for years. I've never understood why they hate me and other immigrants so much. It's puzzling, tbh. It's very tiring and emotionally tiring (when they effectively repeatedly tell you to "gtfo".) I've given up on engaging with them directly. [1] One example where a user named ones_and_zeros essentially tells me to gtfo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11313462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11313462 (see the parent of that comment as well). And I was in fact actually even scolded by dang for bringing it up later on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13599190 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13599190 dang is right in the sense that it is indeed an extremely emotional topic for me. These people are trying to (quite literally) destroy my life, and want to force me out of what's been my home for 10+ years. But I've learned it's actually best for one's own emotional/mental well-being to not engage with them.
- renewiltord 6y ago

yuriko 6y ago

Title is misleading

colourgarden 6y ago
Maybe, maybe not. My immediate reaction was that I was about to read some scandalous anti-semitism (as I'm sure you did too). The truth is a little more bureaucratic with no malice or discrimination from either contributor (I won't comment on the law itself!). The title is a little click-baity but I'm not sure how it could be more accurate?
- sam_goody 6y ago
  It appears to be a decision by a package owner (armancodes), based on Iranian law. The title sounds like it was Github's decision current title: "GitHub: PR won't be merged because..."
- quenix 6y ago
  How about “Maintainer forced to reject PR due to Israel-Iran conflict”?

phonon 6y ago

Possibly better link: https://blog.yiddishe-kop.com/posts/my-pr-was-denied-by-iranian-law https://blog.yiddishe-kop.com/posts/my-pr-was-denied-by-iran...