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I graduated from an electrical engineering program at a big ten (U.S.) school in the mid '90s, and I am closing in on retirement. I spent today enrapt in an Ora

by chasil 2y ago

I graduated from an electrical engineering program at a big ten (U.S.) school in the mid '90s, and I am closing in on retirement. I spent today enrapt in an Oracle upgrade from 10g to 11g. Yes, our IT is COBOL-centric, and we are vastly behind the times. Much of today was spent (re)compiling C. The consensus is that I will have to think hard tomorrow about how to fix these problems. While I was in school, I studied with many Palestinians in my college of engineering. I wonder often what happened to them. At the same time, within Israel, Intel is the largest civilian employer. The Pentium M is an Israeli rework of the Pentium Pro legacy, and Israel is key to Intel's gains over the past two decades. I wish that everyone that I knew from the Middle East was fully involved in the advances of Intel. Perhaps my lost schoolmates' absence was precisely what Intel lacked, but such cultural divides are not easily bridged. This is a great pity.

throwaway2037 2y ago
This is a great post. Thank you to share your personal experience. Do you think they were first generation Palestinians? Or multi-generation (parents or earlier immigrated)? I know that Michigan state (Detroit, etc.) has one of the largest Arab communities in the United States.
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  I went to school with some first generation Palestinians just 5-ish years ago. One of them had to miss an entire quarter because Israel just wouldn't allow him to leave. He has never been back to Palestine since then because another detainment or missed visa problem, etc. would derail his career.
  - ignoramous 2y ago
    > One of them had to miss an entire quarter because Israel just wouldn't allow him to leave Terrible. Even in the current ceasefire terms, there's an explicit provision to have Israel agree to let the injured leave for treatment to neighbouring countries and be allowed to come back to the Strip. Despite arguments to contrary, I can see why some claim it is an open-air prison.
    - exe34 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - js8 2y ago
        If the prison is your homeland, it might be.
        exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        js8 2y ago
        You do know that half of the Gaza population have been born there, right?
        exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        SauciestGNU 2y ago
        Because sex is pleasurable and people have a drive to overcome adversity and lead the most fulfilling lives they can. Israel depriving the Gazan population of those opportunities is also a form of collective punishment and torture.
        exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        SauciestGNU 2y ago
        > can you tell me what happens when Palestinians have unfettered access to Israel? We literally don't know, because since the establishment of the state of Israel that has never been allowed to happen. > only if you're straight. if you're gay, the Palestinians will throw you off a building. Can you cite even one case of this actually happening?
  - trimethylpurine 2y ago
    Some part of this doesn't make sense. He couldn't leave from Gaza or Egypt? Why would he have needed Israel's permission?
    - aprilthird2021 2y ago
      I must admit I'm not an expert in how it works. And as friends we never really talked about the details of such things. But you can read about the procedures here: https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/legal-opinions/legal_memo_travelling_abroad.pdf https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/legal-opinions/legal_mem... Based on that, he must have obtained a special permit to leave Palestine and fly to the US for higher education, but this had to be approved by Israel or he could not leave Palestine or transit through Ben Gurion Airport (remember the Palestinian's international airport was bombed into rubble a decade ago or so). One year they denied him for some Kafkaesque reason, I presume. By the time he sorted it out he had to arrange with the school to take a leave and start again the next quarter
      - trimethylpurine 2y ago
        So... Why not blame Egypt? You can answer if you know, but the question is really meant as a shrug towards bias and a plea for education in geography. Egypt has an airport just west of Gaza. They have a visa exclusive program for Palestinians. And that's not new. So based on the story, if you presume Israel was Kafkaesque then you must also presume that Egypt was at least as Kafkaesque if he was unable to leave from there. Or worse... he was unwilling. And yet, the story is about Israel for some reason. I'd ask why, but I presume to know the answer. Again, this is a shrug towards bias.
        aprilthird2021 2y ago
        He didn't get his visa through Egypt. He got it through Israel, and when it was randomly denied, he probably couldn't apply for an Egyptian one in time to make it.
        2y ago
Aromasin 2y ago
I've worked with a few teams based in Israel during my at Intel, namely in networking and transceiver technology space. I try to make a point of getting to know the people I work with through 1:1s, and you'll be pleased to know there is a good mix of Palestinans and Israelis working together. Everyone there was proud to have a very diverse team.

by chasil 2y ago

throwaway2037 2y ago

This is a great post. Thank you to share your personal experience. Do you think they were first generation Palestinians? Or multi-generation (parents or earlier immigrated)? I know that Michigan state (Detroit, etc.) has one of the largest Arab communities in the United States.

aprilthird2021 2y ago
I went to school with some first generation Palestinians just 5-ish years ago. One of them had to miss an entire quarter because Israel just wouldn't allow him to leave. He has never been back to Palestine since then because another detainment or missed visa problem, etc. would derail his career.
- ignoramous 2y ago
  > One of them had to miss an entire quarter because Israel just wouldn't allow him to leave Terrible. Even in the current ceasefire terms, there's an explicit provision to have Israel agree to let the injured leave for treatment to neighbouring countries and be allowed to come back to the Strip. Despite arguments to contrary, I can see why some claim it is an open-air prison.
  - exe34 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - js8 2y ago
      If the prison is your homeland, it might be.
      - exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        js8 2y ago
        You do know that half of the Gaza population have been born there, right?
        exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        SauciestGNU 2y ago
        Because sex is pleasurable and people have a drive to overcome adversity and lead the most fulfilling lives they can. Israel depriving the Gazan population of those opportunities is also a form of collective punishment and torture.
        exe34 2y ago
        [flagged]
        SauciestGNU 2y ago
        > can you tell me what happens when Palestinians have unfettered access to Israel? We literally don't know, because since the establishment of the state of Israel that has never been allowed to happen. > only if you're straight. if you're gay, the Palestinians will throw you off a building. Can you cite even one case of this actually happening?
- trimethylpurine 2y ago
  Some part of this doesn't make sense. He couldn't leave from Gaza or Egypt? Why would he have needed Israel's permission?
  - aprilthird2021 2y ago
    I must admit I'm not an expert in how it works. And as friends we never really talked about the details of such things. But you can read about the procedures here: https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/legal-opinions/legal_memo_travelling_abroad.pdf https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/legal-opinions/legal_mem... Based on that, he must have obtained a special permit to leave Palestine and fly to the US for higher education, but this had to be approved by Israel or he could not leave Palestine or transit through Ben Gurion Airport (remember the Palestinian's international airport was bombed into rubble a decade ago or so). One year they denied him for some Kafkaesque reason, I presume. By the time he sorted it out he had to arrange with the school to take a leave and start again the next quarter
    - trimethylpurine 2y ago
      So... Why not blame Egypt? You can answer if you know, but the question is really meant as a shrug towards bias and a plea for education in geography. Egypt has an airport just west of Gaza. They have a visa exclusive program for Palestinians. And that's not new. So based on the story, if you presume Israel was Kafkaesque then you must also presume that Egypt was at least as Kafkaesque if he was unable to leave from there. Or worse... he was unwilling. And yet, the story is about Israel for some reason. I'd ask why, but I presume to know the answer. Again, this is a shrug towards bias.
      - aprilthird2021 2y ago
        He didn't get his visa through Egypt. He got it through Israel, and when it was randomly denied, he probably couldn't apply for an Egyptian one in time to make it.
        2y ago

Aromasin 2y ago

I've worked with a few teams based in Israel during my at Intel, namely in networking and transceiver technology space. I try to make a point of getting to know the people I work with through 1:1s, and you'll be pleased to know there is a good mix of Palestinans and Israelis working together. Everyone there was proud to have a very diverse team.