International Education Week 2024: All Eyes on the Genocide in Gaza

Mark A. Ashwill Commentary, , , , , , , , , ,

In my dreams. The depressing and infuriating reality is that it will remain the imposing and bloodstained elephant in the room for most colleagues who call themselves international educators and the organizations representing them and their institutions. Shame on them. Silence is complicity.

Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it. Rejection of human solidarity, obtuse and cynical indifference to the suffering of others, abdication of the intellect and of moral sense to the principle of authority, and above all, at the root of everything, a sweeping tide of cowardice, a colossal cowardice which masks itself as warring virtue, love of country and faith in an idea.
― Primo Levi, The Black Hole of Auschwitz

The glaring hypocrisy of establishment US international education (14.11.24) In this essay, one of my contributions to IEW 2024, I call out international education colleagues who have remained silent in the face of the evil that is Israel’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

I Had a Dream: From Vietnam to Gaza (4.11.24)

Genocide in Gaza – A video slideshow I created set to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

International educators need to end their silence on Gaza (13.1.24)

Let’s ditch the binaries and join the ‘all of humanity’ club (13.10.23)

Israel’s Genocide in Gaza – A periodically updated list of articles, videos, and resources.

Ways to Support People in Gaza – A list of organizations doing lifesaving work in Gaza.

Are you truly human? (17.11.24)

In memory of the victims and in solidarity with the survivors.

Peace, MAA

6 thoughts on “International Education Week 2024: All Eyes on the Genocide in Gaza”

  1. Two quotes from one of my favorite US writers, James Baldwin:

    “I never have been in despair about the world. I’ve been enraged by it. I don’t think I’m in despair. I can’t afford despair. I can’t tell my nephew, my niece. You can’t tell the children there’s no hope.” It’s similar to this one: https://markashwill.com/2020/10/03/i-cant-be-a-pessimist-because-i-am-alive/

    “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and the right to exist.” 

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  6. “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”✨

    ― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

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