22.01.25
Editorial Note
In early January, the General Assembly of the American Historical Association (AHA) debated a resolution against Israel. The resolution was titled “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” and stated: “Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between October 2023 and June 2024; Whereas that campaign, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system; Whereas in April 2024, UN experts expressed “grave concern over… an action known as scholasticide.” The group Historians for Peace and Democracy were the driving force behind the resolution.
According to the resolution, the bases for such charges include the following: “The IDF’s destruction of 80 percent of schools in Gaza, leaving 625,000 children with no educational access; The IDF’s destruction of all 12 Gaza university campuses; The IDF’s destruction of Gaza’s archives, libraries, cultural centers, museums, and bookstores, including 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, three churches, and the al-Aqsa University library, which preserved crucial documents and other materials related to the history and culture of Gaza; The IDF’s repeated violent displacements of Gaza’s people, leading to the irreplaceable loss of students’ and teachers’ educational and research materials, which will extinguish the future study of Palestinian history.”
The resolution concluded that “Whereas the United States government has supplied Israel with the weapons being used to commit this scholasticide; Therefore, be it resolved that the AHA, which supports the right of all peoples to freely teach and learn about their past, condemns the Israeli violence in Gaza that undermines that right; Be it further resolved that the AHA calls for a permanent ceasefire to halt the scholasticide documented above; Finally, be it resolved that the AHA form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.”
ָAfter the debate and the vote in favor; the resolution was forwarded to the AHA Council for the final examination. However, the AHA Council vetoed the resolution on January 17, 2025, stating: “After careful deliberation and consideration, the AHA Council has vetoed the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza.” They explained that “The AHA Council deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza. The Council considers the ‘Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,’ however, to contravene the Association’s Constitution and Bylaws, because it lies outside the scope of the Association’s mission and purpose, defined in its Constitution.”
According to the AHA constitution, “the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching, and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of kindred activities in the interest of history.” The Council ended by stating, “The AHA Council appreciates the work of Historians for Peace and Democracy and recognizes the diversity of perspectives, concerns, and commitments among AHA members.”
Upon hearing the news, the Steering Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) was very upset. It published a response to the AHA veto on behalf of Historians for Peace and Democracy. It stated, “The American Historical Association Council’s decision to veto our resolution is a shocking decision. It overturns an unprecedented landslide vote at the January 5 Business Meeting, where 82% of the 520 members present voted for our resolution. Given that Council itself was clearly divided, with four of the sixteen members opposing the veto and one abstaining, Council should have allowed the entire membership to vote, as was the case with the 2007 resolution opposing the war in Iraq. Instead, the Council majority have arrogated the decision to themselves in a profoundly undemocratic way.”
They argued, “This veto is also in bad faith: if Council believes this resolution violates the AHA’s Constitution, it should not have let it come to a vote in the first place. To decide that after the fact—and after Council put considerable effort into structuring a democratic process for handling resolutions—is just wrong. It suggests that the actual reasons for overturning the members’ decision are unstated, and the continuing weight of the ‘Palestine exception’ to free speech, as we have seen on campuses across the U.S. in the past year, is also inside our own Association.”
They further argued, “if this resolution violates the Constitution, then so do the following: The 2007 decision to censure the war in Iraq, which the membership approved overwhelmingly after Council sent it out for a vote; Council’s March 2022 statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine; Other statements Council has made in recent years, including criticisms of the governments of China and Poland.”
They ended their protest by stating, “We do not accept in any way the false argument that our resolution lies outside of the AHA’s purview and mission. We are defending the right of Palestinians and people everywhere to study their own history. We are denouncing the crime of Israel’s scholasticide— the deliberate destruction of universities, schools, libraries, archives and cultural sites. We believe Council’s majority has acted in this way because they have good reason to believe the membership as a whole would support our resolution, and therefore they suppressed a democratic decision-making process. Let us hope this is not a foretaste of the ‘anticipatory obedience’ to the current wave of authoritarianism that is sweeping our campuses. We will urge our members to write Council directly calling for an immediate reconsideration. In the next week we will also convene an online mass meeting of our 1,950 members to discuss further action.”
Interestingly, the mission of Historians for Peace & Democracy, under the banner of “Organizing for Justice and Honest History,” is to “stand up for peace and diplomacy internationally, and for democracy and human rights at home. We mobilize activists on campuses and in communities across the United States of America, create educational resources for students, teachers and parents, and network with other organizations working for peace and democracy at home and abroad.”
This is quite surprising; for a group that promotes peace and democracy, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas do not serve as good examples.
Clearly, the H-PAD and other activists turned the AHA meeting into a pro-Palestinian rally, with participants wearing kaffiyehs and chanting “Free Palestine.” This opened the AHA to criticism that, like liberal arts in general, it became politicized and lost its legitimacy. Indeed, Van Gosse, a retired historian who serves as H-PAD’s Co-Chair, claims, it is “my work to understand and combat US imperialism.”
Already in 2014, Haaretz published an article on BDS, where Gosse was mentioned as the co-organizer of a roundtable discussion at the AHA meeting by historians “critical of Israeli policy.” His group proposed two resolutions condemning Israel. Their resolutions reprimand Israel for “acts of violence and intimidation by the State of Israel against Palestinian researchers and their archival collections, acts which can destroy Palestinians’ sense of historical identity as well as the historical record itself,” for “refusing to allow students from Gaza to travel in order to pursue higher education abroad, and even at West Bank universities” and its “policy of denying entry to foreign nationals seeking to promote educational development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” He said. “If you move a large body like the AHA, which has real standing, that changes consciousness and opinion… If we stimulate debate on these issues, that’s what we’re seeking to do.” Gosse personally donated money to JVP.
There are more cases. On July 21, 2024, Stone Peterson, a history doctoral student posted a request on Facebook on behalf of the Israel Palestine Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy, urging “Stop AIPAC and its influence over US politics. Boycott Netanyahu’s visit to Congress.”
Not unexpectedly, the resolution bears the hallmarks of academic activism. First, there are the double standards; the AHA has to charge even the most brutal dictatorship that erased the history and scholarship of ethnic, religious, and class groups deemed to be enemies of the regime. The list is very long, but the historians would be well-advised to look at the eradication of entire parts of history and scholarship of Iran and respiting other parts to fit the worldview of the theocratic regime in Tehran.
Second, the fact that Hamas, which has practiced radical embedding in schools, universities, and other public venues, turning civilians into human shields – a clear violation of the laws of war – was not mentioned in the proposed resolution. IAM has repeatedly noted that this type of omission is deliberate. It presents the Palestinians as lacking in agency, that is, not responsible for their own acts and decisions, the “forever victims” of the “nefarious Israelis and Jews.” Leaving out Hamas is essential to preserving the long-standing moral perversion that Israelis (and Jews) can do nothing right and the Palestinians can do nothing wrong. While this approach is wrong in any academic discourse, it is most galling when used by historians whose authority and legitimacy lie in the careful pursuit of facts.
REFERENCES:
Update as of January 17, 2025: After careful deliberation and consideration, the AHA Council has vetoed the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza.” More information can be found here.
AHA Announcements
Update as of January 17, 2025: The AHA Council deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza. The Council considers the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” however, to contravene the Association’s Constitution and Bylaws, because it lies outside the scope of the Association’s mission and purpose, defined in its Constitution as “the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching, and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of kindred activities in the interest of history.” After careful deliberation and consideration, the AHA Council vetoes the resolution. The AHA Council appreciates the work of Historians for Peace and Democracy and recognizes the diversity of perspectives, concerns, and commitments among AHA members.
Historians for Peace and Democracy Responds to the AHA’s Veto of the Scholasticide Resolution
Filed under: Announcements
January 17, 2025
The American Historical Association Council’s decision to veto our resolution is a shocking decision. It overturns an unprecedented landslide vote at the January 5 Business Meeting, where 82% of the 520 members present voted for our resolution. Given that Council itself was clearly divided, with four of the sixteen members opposing the veto and one abstaining, Council should have allowed the entire membership to vote, as was the case with the 2007 resolution opposing the war in Iraq. Instead, the Council majority have arrogated the decision to themselves in a profoundly undemocratic way.
This veto is also in bad faith: if Council believes this resolution violates the AHA’s Constitution, it should not have let it come to a vote in the first place. To decide that after the fact—and after Council put considerable effort into structuring a democratic process for handling resolutions—is just wrong. It suggests that the actual reasons for overturning the members’ decision are unstated, and the continuing weight of the “Palestine exception” to free speech, as we have seen on campuses across the U.S. in the past year, is also inside our own Association.
Further, if this resolution violates the Constitution, then so do the following:
- The 2007 decision to censure the war in Iraq, which the membership approved overwhelmingly after Council sent it out for a vote;
- Council’s March 2022 statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine;
- Other statements Council has made in recent years, including criticisms of the governments of China and Poland.
We do not accept in any way the false argument that our resolution lies outside of the AHA’s purview and mission. We are defending the right of Palestinians and people everywhere to study their own history. We are denouncing the crime of Israel’s scholasticide— the deliberate destruction of universities, schools, libraries, archives and cultural sites. We believe Council’s majority has acted in this way because they have good reason to believe the membership as a whole would support our resolution, and therefore they suppressed a democratic decision-making process. Let us hope this is not a foretaste of the “anticipatory obedience” to the current wave of authoritarianism that is sweeping our campuses.
We will urge our members to write Council directly calling for an immediate reconsideration. In the next week we will also convene an online mass meeting of our 1,950 members to discuss further action.
Steering Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy
Update as of January 6, 2025: The “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza” was passed by members attending the business meeting. As per the AHA’s Constitution, article 7(3–5), all measures passed by the business meeting shall come before the AHA Council for acceptance, nonconcurrence, or veto. The AHA Council has begun a thoughtful and vigorous conversation and will make a decision at its next meeting, which will take place within the month.
RESOLUTION FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE JANUARY 2025 BUSINESS MEETING
The following resolution, signed by 252 AHA members in good standing as of October 1, 2024, was submitted to the executive director for consideration at the January 5, 2025, business meeting. A full list of signatories can be viewed online at historians.org/business-mtg.
Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza
Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between October 2023 and June 2024; Whereas that campaign, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system; Whereas in April 2024, UN experts expressed “grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip” including “the killing of 261 teachers and 95 university professors . . . which may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide.”
The bases for this charge include:
• The IDF’s destruction of 80 percent of schools in Gaza, leaving 625,000 children with no educational access;
• The IDF’s destruction of all 12 Gaza university campuses;
• The IDF’s destruction of Gaza’s archives, libraries, cultural centers, museums, and bookstores, including 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, three churches, and the al-Aqsa University library, which preserved crucial documents and other materials related to the history and culture of Gaza;
• The IDF’s repeated violent displacements of Gaza’s people, leading to the irreplaceable loss of students’ and teachers’ educational and research materials, which will extinguish the future study of Palestinian history;
Whereas the United States government has supplied Israel with the weapons being used to commit this scholasticide; Therefore, be it resolved that the AHA, which supports the right of all peoples to freely teach and learn about their past, condemns the Israeli violence in Gaza that undermines that right; Be it further resolved that the AHA calls for a permanent ceasefire to halt the scholasticide documented above;
Finally, be it resolved that the AHA form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.
AHA November 2024 18/10/24 4:31 PM
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Active since January 2003
Organizing for Justice and Honest History
The mission of Historians for Peace &Democracy (H-PAD) is to stand up for peace and diplomacy internationally, and for democracy and human rights at home. We mobilize activists on campuses and in communities across the United States of America, create educational resources for students, teachers and parents, and network with other organizations working for peace and democracy at home and abroad. First formed in 2003 as Historians Against the War, we reorganized as H-PAD in 2018.
Click here to learn more about our organization.
SCHOLASTICIDE IN GAZA!
Every year historians from the U.S. and abroad gather for the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. In January of 2025 Historians for Peace and Democracy asked their colleagues to join with us to pass a resolution condemning the ongoing Israeli destruction of the Palestinian education system, and the killing of its staff and students.
Our colleagues responded with overwhelming support, voting 428 to 88 in favor of the resolution. This was the culmination of a lot of work by H-PAD members and many others outraged by the destruction of the education system in Gaza, and the death of thousands of its teachers and students. Since the passage of the resolution there has been coverage in Haaretz, in The New York Times, Inside Higher Education, on Democracy Now!, and elsewhere. If you support the resolution but weren’t able to attend the meeting, we urge you to help us prepare for what comes next.
Click here for more information on the resolution and why H-PAD members support it!
Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza
Historians for Peace and Democracy148 subscribers
495 views Oct 30, 2024This slideshow is a visual representation of the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza” presented by Historians for Peace and Democracy to the American Historical Association. The text of this resolution is available at historiansforpeace.org: https://historiansforpeace.org/2024/0… If you are a member of the AHA come to the Business Meeting on Sunday January 5, 2025, from 5:15-6:30PM in the Mercury Ballroom (New York Hilton, Third Floor) and vote to pass this resolution. This slideshow was produced by the The Israel Palestine Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy.
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The Israel Palestine Working Group of H-PAD has been working since October 2023 to promote a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Gaza. We also oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, which only serves to prolong the war and increase the suffering of Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza.
To get our message across we have written letters to elected legislators, to the editors of the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and published articles in The Nation and El Espectador (Bogota, Colombia).
We have also produced two short videos (designed to be shared!) on why people should support the ceasefire, and another on why criticism of Israeli policy is NOT anti-Semitic.
You can view (and share!) them on youtube or other social media platforms:
We hope you will join us in our work! If you think you can contribute, please Margaret Power at cochairs@historiansforpeace.org.
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Historians for Peace and Democracy
Stone Peterson 21 July 2024
Watch the new video produced by the Israel Palestine Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy, Stand Against AIPAC
Stop AIPAC and its influence over US politics. Boycott Netanyahu’s visit to Congress.The Israel Palestine Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy…
Stand Against AIPAC
Historians for Peace and Democracy
148 subscribers
770 views Jul 21, 2024
Stop AIPAC and its influence over US politics. Boycott Netanyahu’s visit to Congress. To support Cori Bush, contact Seed the Vote at https://www.mobilize.us/seedthevote/e… The Israel Palestine Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy produced this video. Let us know what you think of it. And please share!
israel-academia-monitor.com 