“Someone is responsible for the protests.” It’s often not the students. This was also found out by the Prague FHS, where the demonstration was also held

The Prague Faculty of Humanities distanced itself from the pro-Palestinian protest that took place this week in front of its building. “The organizers of the demonstration, with whom I spoke personally, were not students of FHS, they were not even students of Charles University,” the dean of the faculty, Věra Sokolová, was surprised in her statement. Similar questions are also beginning to be raised by the American media, in the country in recent weeks there have been protests at universities on a completely different scale, as well as arrests across dozens of states. According to some findings, the current protests should have been professionally prepared and organized months in advance.

A protest by a group calling itself Academics Against Apartheid took place in front of one of the faculties of Charles University in Prague on Thursday. “The Faculty of Humanities, like the entire Charles University, honors academic freedom and respects the right to free expression of opinion. Both the faculty and the university are extremely receptive to creating space for dialogue, the faculty repeatedly offers students space and support for organizing academic discussion. However, yesterday’s (Thursday’s) demonstration is not one of such events, it was not announced in advance, and the management of the faculty distances itself from it and condemns the form chosen by the protesters,” Dean Sokolová said in a statement.

According to her words, the dean was personally present throughout the situation. “The organizers of the demonstration, with whom I spoke personally, were not FHS students, nor were they even CU students. On the spot, I encouraged the demonstrators to discuss the role and responsibility of the academic institution in the global conflict, to discuss the role and responsibility of the faculty leadership and me as its dean. However, there was no interest in such a discussion. As much as I respect the right to express one’s free opinion, the role of the academic land and the academic community is different. Academic land is and should be a space of mutual respect and dialogue. I didn’t see that at the demonstration yesterday,” said the dean, adding that at the same time, the method of protest caused a feeling of threat and also disrupted classes with noise.

One of the students from the dormitories was then attacked and injured in the face by one of the protesters due to his disapproval. “The task of the university and the faculty is to create a space for discussion even on sensitive topics. At the same time, it is absolutely necessary not to create an environment in which anyone feels threatened, attacked, humiliated, intimidated,” added the dean.

On a much more massive scale, protests are taking place at American universities, where hundreds of protesters are being arrested at the same time. However, university students are far from dominating those arrested, according to the police. For example, on the grounds of Columbia University in New York, the police detained 112 people on Tuesday, practically a third of them had nothing to do with the university, the American CNN quotes the New York police. At City College in New York, according to CNN, the police detained 170 people, but 102 of them had no ties to the university.

Protests against Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and the heavy loss of civilian life have rocked many American universities in recent weeks. The movement was ignited by an incident on April 18, when the administration of Columbia University in New York arrested a hundred “students” who were camping in the middle of its campus. The protesters are demanding that the schools cut any ties to Israel and to companies they say are profiting from the Israeli offensive.

According to The Wall Street Journal, there were even months of protest preparations and training of protesters by left-wing groups and activists. “Left-wing groups and experienced ‘veterans’ of the demonstrations provided training and support before the pro-Palestinian (protest) camps sprung up,” the paper said, noting that the student organizers consulted with a number of left-wing groups.

The fact that “someone” is behind the protests is heard even from the ranks of the police. The manner and level of organization of the protests, including leaflets, for example, with instructions on how to proceed in case of arrest, how to protest, according to police representatives, do not exist by chance. “I mean, and I’ve said it before, someone is behind this movement,” US Fox News quoted Kaz Daughtry of the New York Police Department as saying after the raids on the aforementioned universities. According to Fox News, the NYPD itself was then to release a video showing a professional “protest consultant” present at Columbia University.

The British newspaper Daily Mail came out this week saying that the protests at Columbia University were funded by millions of dollars by a charity linked to Hamas.