The Delhi University units of All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO), Campus Front of India (CFI), Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF), Fraternity Movement, Bhagat Singh Chatra Ektha Manch (BSCEM) and Democratic Students’ Union (DSU) have condemned the Delhi University’s move to conduct a seminar series on Holocaust in collaboration with Israel Embassy and Yad Vashem centre.
“The ulterior motive behind this bloody collaboration that came right after Israel’s carnage on Palestine yet another Zionist PR event to shift the focus from Israel’s war crimes. The memory of Holocaust in this sense is weaponised by Israel to justify their ethnic cleansing and countless other human rights violation in occupied Palestine,” read a statement jointly issued by student organisations.
The student bodies unequivocally demanded the university administration to back off from collaborating with the seminar commencing from 31 May.
The seven student units also exhort the student community to unite and boycott the seminar and register their protest against the college administration.
“At a time when Israel’s bogus narrative of “self – defense” is losing grounds internationally and the legitimate Palestinian resistance is gaining more acceptance and solidarity, St. Stephen’s College’s collaboration to this seminar is tantamount to its approval to Israel’s nefarious genocides and occupational projects,” the student groups said.
They also alleged that the Zionist ambassadors are being sent to different universities around the world to induce students by funding seemingly academic programmes and thereby covering up their war crimes.
“The Yad Vashem Centre is a cultural institution, established in 1953 by the Israeli state. It is physically built on stolen land, comprising 45 acres, in Jerusalem, Palestine. It exists as an ideological tool, organises several “educational” programs to spread Zionist propaganda against Palestinians, and also takes preparatory courses for Israel Defense Forces – IDF (IOF) students and officers. Yad Vashem’s current chairman, Effi Eitam, is a former IDF brigadier general who has committed innumerous human rights violations in his professional capacity, so much so that he has even been convicted for some by the Israeli military court,” read the statement.
The student organisations alleged that the pro-Israel campaign is a part of the broader call for regaining Israel’s face globally after the illegal occupation of Sheikh Jarrah and murdering over 230 Palestinians hitherto, and still progressing.
“Israel’s occupation of Palestine dates back to early 1947,after which the state extended its illegal occupation, leaving less than 15% of Palestinian land uncolonised. Hundreds of Palestinians where killed annually, with a massive number of children,” according to the statement.
