Between September 8 and 11 2013 BGU carried out the Red Sea Open for the fourth time. Convened by Mor Zoran and Noa Golan hyper-funded by the Ben Gurion University the rounds took place on the Eilat Campus of BGU. 32 teams, an outstanding Chief Adjudication team and an all round board combined an intimate debate atmosphere with a party holiday mood.  And the debate community has a new contender that wants to host EUDC 2016.

Eilat, a rather Unconventional Debate Scenery

From around a dozen tournaments yearly generated on the Israeli circuit the Red Sea Open is the only one truly catering to international teams. For a total of 90 Euros per person (100 Euros if issued from a domestic institution) participants are accommodated for four nights in a 3-star all-inclusive pool resort hotel, just a few minutes from the beach. The lucky ones even get a balcony with a view on the red-desert mountains of Jordan. Known for it’s coral reefs and hyped for it’s snorkeling activities in the Red Sea, Eilat is the domestic holiday resort hub par excellence. The city at the most southern tip of the country shares a border with the Egyptian South-Sinai peninsula and the Jordanian Gulf of Aqaba. Six in-rounds over four days, leave plenty of room to party in the evening, sleep in and enjoy the 39 degree celsius by the pool.
Their breakfasts and dinners are royal with ample choices, a ten minute walk to the campus is spared because the rides are take care of in fully air-conditioned busses. All this is to say that the Ben Gurion University is now for the fourth year heavily subsidizing a debate tournament that feels a lot like proper vacation.

Streitkultur Berlin at Red Sea Open 2013 (c) Streitkultur Tübingen

Nothing Less but a WUDC A-Team Adjudication Standard
But don’t be mistaken, the quality of debate experience is by no means hampered. On the contrary, the Red Sea Open traditionally kicks off with a full day of workshops and is run under the umbrella of the most decorated Adjudication Team. In addition to BGU’s very own rising star Monica Forman, the RSO is in fact the tournament one could mingle with a substantial part of the upcoming Chennai- WUDC A-Team Michael Shapira, Harish Natrajan and Michael Bear, as well as with Vienna EUDC’s Irish CA Christine Simpson.
While the conveners insist that the most generous part of the funding came directly from the BGU, the Ayn Rand Foundation crept in as a sponsor in exchange for a workshop on objectivism, by Harish Natrajan, a couple of books and banners as well as the theme of the motion in round 4 (see below).
Also remarkable was this year’s turnout of VDCH-land (Germany, Switzerland, Autria) participation (see list below). Not unsuccessful as it with two teams and one adjudicator break: the Mainz/Mannheim team Marietta Gädeke and Jana Gilke and the Vienna team, Andreas Prischl and Jakob Reiter both broke to Semis.

A daring Final and a Prime Entertainment
Four stellar teams provided for an entraining  final.  The debate was opened by Oxford University student Eylon Aslan-Levy, who previously had received quite some media attention after a confrontation with the British MP George Galloway who stormed out during Eylon’s speech in an Oxford university debate with the words “I don’t debate with Israelis”. A final motion debating the inclusion of a debating society located in a settlement in the West Bank gave him room to humorously play on that occurrence. Indeed, Eylon together with Eitan Har-Oz from Hebrew University won the Final.

Hotels by the Red Sea

Beyond Debate Holiday Resort: a Debating Society with Grand Plans

Pursuant to it’s four-year tradition the Red Sea Open ended with a pool party. The winners are announced to a crowd in swimsuits and the winning team is thrown into a pool. Cleverly it reconditions our memories to forget all the classroom-like associations to debate and blurs them almost fully, into a believe that we were spending a legit holiday. This year the president of the Ben Gurion University joined the award ceremony. By no means appalled not to find the award ceremony in it’s conventional black-tie form, the President announced her very sincere support of BGU’s prospects to host the European Debate Championship 2016 in Israel!

Motions

• R1: THW ban the circumcision of males under the age of 18.
• R2: THBT Germany should grant asylum to Edward Snowden.
• R3: THBT the jury in all medical malpractice trials should consist solely of medical professionals.
• R4: TH Supports the Creation of a New Country, Open to All where the only Functions of the Government are to provide Security and to Protect Property Rights.
• R5: TH Supports the actions of the Gulabi Gang. (Infoslide: The Gulabi Gang “the Pink gang” are a collection of women in North India that wear pink saris and engage in violent, non-lethal acts of vigilantism. They target men who they have reason to believe have gone unpunished for acts of violence against women.)
• R6: This House, upon discovering Irrefutable Proof that God does NOT exist, Would use a fail safe system to destroy the proof and hide it from any human’s knowledge.
• Semi Final:  THBT the discovery of a means of stopping the aging process would be a bad thing for society. (Clarifying information for the Semi Final: For this debate ’stopping the aging process‘ means that bodies would stop aging after the age of 35; it does NOT mean that people would stop dying of things unrelated to the process of aging.
• Final: This House as the Israeli Debating League would refuse to accept a debating society from Ariel as a member. (Clarifying information for the Final: Ariel is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.)

Break

Semi Final 1

• OG: Marietta Gädeke (Mainz) & Jana Gilke (Manheim),  Why is the Rum gone?
• OO: Nicole Loiter (RRIS) & Ben Gladnikoff (RRIS), Just Stalin, Putin name
• CG: Jakob Reiter (DKWien) & Andreas Prischl (DKWien), Vienna Meshuggene Mishpuche
• CO: Ben Dory & Simon Tunnicliffe (Durham), Egypt is lovely this time of the year
• Chaired by: Yael Bezalel along on the panel Monica Forman, Michael Baer, Rosie Halmi, Mor Zoran

Semi Final 2

• OG: Ro’ee Levy (TAU) & Racheli Rembrandt (HUJI), R&R
• OO: Shahar Langbeheim (BGU/ IDC) & Miriam Gindis (BGU), The Bluefooted
• CG: Aaron Balshan (RRIS) & Talya Taplinsky (RRIS), ask Gregg
• CO: Eylon Aslan-Levy (Oxford) & Eitan Har-Oz (HUJI), This special relationship
• Chaired by: Alon van Dam along on the panel Michael Shapira, Harish Natrajan, Gal Frenkel, Noa Golan

Final

• OG: Eylon Aslan-Levy (Oxford) & Eitan Har-Oz (HUJI), This special relationship
• OO: Ben Gladnikoff (RRIS) & Nicole Loiter (RRIS), Just Stalin, Putin name
• CG: Shahar Langbeheim (BGU/ IDC) & Miriam Gindis (BGU), The Bluefooted
• CO: Ben Dory & Simon Tunnicliffe (Durham), Egypt is lovely this time of the year
• Chaired by: Monica Forman along on the panel Christine Simpson, Yael Bezalel, Alon van Dam, Harish Natrajan,

Best Speakers

1. Ben Dory (Durham)
2. Simon Tunnicliffe (Durham)
3. Eylon Aslan-Levy (Oxford)
4. Shahar Langbeheim (BGU/ IDC)

VDCH- Land participation

Sarah von Kaminietz (BDU), Matthias Winkelmann (BDU), Carla Coburger (BDU), Attila Dékány (BDU), Lennart Lokstein (Streitkultur), Jan Ehlert (Eberhard Karld Universität, Tübingen), Konrad Gütschow (Streitkultur, Tübingen), Nikos Bosse (Streitkultur, Tübingen) [adj], Marietta Gädeke (Gutenberg University, Mainz) [semi break], Jana Gilke (Gutenberg University, Mainz) [semi break], Andreas Prischl, DKWien [semi break], Jakob Reiter DKWien [semi break], Rosie Halmi DKWien [adj break]

Social Media

• Twitter:Hashtag #redseaopen; #rso13
• Facebook Picture Gallery
• Facebook Event (with more pictures)

Rosie Halmi/ ak