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I saw the horror on the faces of the organizers. They were devouring me with their eyes, they were begging me to stop. Most likely, this has never happened here, before. Everything was being filmed, recorded. But I was not ready to stop.
The students in aula did not react. They were clearly conditioned not to get excited by speeches delivered by 'elements' hostile to the regime.
I continued:
"Professor Malik, I am asking you, I demand to know, whether there was one single case when the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia or any other Western country, was put on trial and condemned, by those international mechanisms that you mentioned earlier" Condemned for murdering millions of children, or for carpet-bombing thousands of schools in such places like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and later in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria? For, right now, trying to starve children in Venezuela? For keeping people, including children, from having access to medicine--
Then I turned to Frank Hardman:
"Professor Hardman, aren't those states that you mention and defined as 'weak', in such a situation, because they are being antagonized, attacked and terrorized by the West; by historically imperialist countries?"
Total silence.
Then, I concluded:
"Wouldn't it be the most effective way to protect schools and children, if we'd make sure that the West and its allies, would finally stop destroying dozens of countries all over the world?"
The Chair of the conference, Prof. Sultan Barakat, went to work, immediately, trying to contain the damage:
"Professor Malik, obviously, the question is about what is happening in Palestine--
But Professor Malik was a tough warrior, like myself, only from the opposite side. She knew precisely that it was all beyond Israel and Palestine. Israel and Palestine were part of it, but they were not the only issue here. She brushed off Sultan Barakat and went straight after my throat:
"It is not about the West! It is not about one group of countries. All members of the UN Security Council are responsible! Look at Russia, committing atrocities in Syria--
And the shouting match began. Our personal "Doha debate".
"Which atrocities?" I shouted at her. "Prove it."
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