The hypocrisy of (some) academics

Illustration: Isaac Nahón-Serfaty

Nothing new. It repeats itself like the rock that Sisyphus pushes up and will always have to push because his curse is that the rock will always roll back down the hill, and he will have to do it again knowing that he will have to do it again.

It is the same hypocrisy that has survived over the years. Some have denied genocides (what about the denial of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia by the renowned professor Noam Chomsky). They ignore the genocides that have been happening before their eyes for years (their delicate eyes that do not see what is happening in Sudan and Yemen), and they quickly accept the "truth" of a genocide that has not occurred, like the one they quickly endorsed in Gaza.

In Gaza there is a terrible war. The terms of that war are those that Hamas and its allies have established (no surrender, no release of all the hostages). And, without a doubt, innocent Palestinians have suffered and continue to suffer. 

Genocide in Gaza? Many have claimed so, including Jewish professors of Israeli origin and associations of academics who claim to study genocides. In a research published by professors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, each of the arguments against the idea that, in the war against Hamas, Israel has committed genocide has been dismantled. I will be told that it is an Israeli study and that, therefore, it has no credibility. Before assuming that conclusion, you should read it. Here is the link: https://besacenter.org/debunking-the-genocide-allegationsa-reexamination-of-the-israel-hamas-war-2023-2025/

But let's return to the hypocrisy of (some) academics. There are academics who preferred silence when Hamas live-streamed the massacres of October 7, 2023. They preferred silence when Hamas held its macabre parade of the coffins of the Bibas babies kidnapped in southern Israel and murdered in Gaza. They didn't say a peep when Hamas militiamen paraded in Gaza the corpse of a young Israeli woman. Nothing, rien, nada.

The hypocrisy of academics is the clearest proof that a university degree does not morally qualify human beings. It does not make them better. Sometimes it probably makes them worse.