The history of human beings is a history of wars, conquests, colonizations and genocides. Spain also has a history of wars, conquests, colonizations and genocides. Of persecution for religious reasons, for being of another supposed race (there is only one race: the human race), for thinking differently, for loving or desiring differently, for defending democracy.
It is extremely sad and surprising to see that still in the 21st century hardly anything has changed and to witness the indiscriminate murder of men, women (humanitarian workers, medical staff, journalists...) and children in Gaza and the West Bank (and without this making us forget other conflicts, such as the invasion of Ukraine among others) by a supposed democracy.
The university cannot remain silent about this. Teaching cannot only consist of disseminating concepts in a cold and mechanical way, as if these concepts have nothing to do intrinsically with the human being and his nature. It must also be the place where research is carried out, and where future generations are trained to achieve a better future world where justice, peace and human rights prevail.
As a teacher and as a Spaniard (whatever that is) and a descendant, surely, of Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Basques, Romans, Visigoths, Jews, Arabs and who knows how many other peoples (I usually joke with my students about that this is one of the reasons why we live longer and why we are more handsome) I cannot but condemn the genocide that is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people and support the statement of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (although I wish it had gone further).
And I strongly support the mobilizations of university students in different countries while I condemn the passivity, if not the shameful support, of their governments, of our governments (with a few exceptions such as South Africa or Colombia).
In the future, I don't know if months or years, it will be impossible for us to explain why we allowed it. Studies will be done. We will realize our mistake. But we will not be able to restore life to the men, women and children who have been murdered in the last seven months and are being murdered tonight. The same night that those who are murdering them have sponsored a music festival in a Swedish city to cover the screams of terror and pain and the bombs.
#Genocide, #Israel, #Palestine, #EurovisionSongContest2024, #UVa
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