Pars Today

Pars Today- History teaches us that the holocaust happens because people follow orders and remain intentionally blind towards the greater evil in which day are involved.

Michael Schwalbe, professor of sociology in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, wrote in a note, "Continuation of confronting with protesters to the Israeli crimes can put the Americans as a nation in the course of turning into one of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity."

 Part of the note published from this professor reads, "35 thousand Palestinians have been killed most of which are children and civilians. After the destruction of all universities of Gaza and bombardment of hospitals of Gaza, while more than one million people in Gaza are facing with the compulsory famine and death, in the US, students protesting the crimes of Gaza are detained."

These students have set up tents and called for talks on the issue that how can their university be complicit in a genocide?

With compulsory expulsion and detention of protesters in the university campus, a message is conveyed to other humans who feel sympathy: keep silent; accept everything as it is; do not exit the line, or else you'll be hurt.

We know that there is no need to detain all. Most people are scared of detention and its potential consequences and, thus, there is little likelihood for them to protest. It is even less probable for them to talk; hence, they refrain from this important question, that how can universities, which are apparently responsible for human values in society, be partners in violence?

The contrast between freedom of expression and violent crackdown on protest urges the university directors to present justifications which both common sense and visible evidence are opposed to.

Officials of the university of North Carolina, in a statement, claimed that they had been forced to send the police because the protesters had caused disturbance in the university activity, threat and intimidation of students and vandalism.

This claim has been rejected by the first-hand witnesses and journalists. One of the local TV news anchors said, "We have witnessed this protest for five days and this is the first time that we see violence." Other news anchors have also witnessed similar scenes of protests.

Officials of the university of North Carolina, in their statement, also claimed that they have been concerned with the "increase of reports on anti-Semitic words" pertaining to the protests and, thereby, used to employ the main propaganda tactic which had been used to vilify the critics of the Israeli oppression against the Palestinian people.

As journalists and others have documented, the claim that anti-Semitism is prevalent everywhere in the American universities, has mainly been based on the attitude that criticism of Israel's behavior is tantamount to an anti-Semitic behavior. Nevertheless, at times, Israeli officials are careless and openly confess that this is a stratagem to counter protests.

Another tactic is to use the police to turn a peaceful protest into an uproar and then claim that the police violence is necessary to establish order. Those who follow the sequence of events from near, might be misled and imagine that the police violence stems from the protesters.

History teaches us that the holocaust happens because people follow orders and remain intentionally blind towards the greater evil in which day are involved. It is this very dangerous consonance among people and officials which can disrupt freedom of expression. This is what the protests of students and gatherings of solidarity against genocide are trying to break.

The continuation of this trend can put us, the Americans as a nation, in the course of turning into one of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity; i.e. something similar to the popular supporters of Hitler in the Nazi Germany.

Source: SCHWALBE MICHAEL. 2024. University Leaders Are Teaching Us How Holocausts Happen. ACADEME BLOG

Key phrases: what is holocaust, US support for Israel, war in Gaza, child-killing in Palestine, what is going on in the American universities?  

 RM/ME