Turgay Aldemir, President of Bülbülzade Foundation, and the accompanying delegation attended the 25th International Bethlehem Academic Symposium, hosted by Mardin Artuklu University for the second time this year. “Academia and Zionism: Zionism, International Community and Global Conscience”, the symposium aims to discuss this human tragedy on an academic basis in the second year of Israel's devastating attacks on the Palestinian territories.
The symposium drew attention to the fact that tens of thousands of civilians have lost their lives, especially in Gaza, while hundreds of thousands are facing crises such as hunger, epidemics and forced displacement. The international community's silence and inaction in the face of these atrocities calls into question the legitimacy of the “norms-based” international system built after World War II.
In the event, the supportive or silent attitudes of Western states, especially the US and European countries, towards the Socio-Genocide were criticized, while the rising objections of the global conscience were emphasized. The determined stance of civil society was evaluated as a promising picture for the protection of human dignity. The intellectual dimensions of these reactions, which developed despite the pressures of the media, capital circles and governments, were among the important topics of the symposium.
