A resolution accusing Israel of “scholasticide” passed by members at an American Historical Association business meeting was vetoed by the AHA Council, the AHA announced.
The AHA Council said it deplored any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions in Gaza, but the January 5 Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza laid outside the association’s mission.
All measures passed at AHA business meetings are placed before the council for acceptance, nonconcurrence, or veto, according to the association constitution. The resolution had passed 428-88 at the annual meeting.
The American Association of University Professors condemned the move as disrespecting the democratic will of the association’s members.
“We call on [the] AHA to allow for a membership vote on the condemnation of scholasticide in Gaza or respect the overwhelming vote at the AHA meeting,” AAUP president Todd Wolfson said on social media Sunday.
Historians for Palestine
A group of AHA members calling itself Historians for Palestine accused the AHA of supporting scholasticide and pandering to political actors. The group claimed on X/Twitter that only one Gazan history professor was not missing, arrested, or dead, and the veto denied recognition of “Palestinian existence.”
“We urge historians to recognize this anti-democratic silencing as complicity in scholasticide,” the faction said Saturday.
National Students for Justice in Palestine called on AHA members to end their affiliation with the organization. It argued against the council’s assertion that the resolution was not within the scope of its purpose, as the alleged destruction of libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza was in the interest of history.
“An institution that turns its back on education cannot pretend to serve history,” NSJP said on social media on Friday.
The Anti-Defamation League on Friday welcomed the veto after its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt had sent a letter to the AHA Council urging it to reject the resolution. The Thursday letter argued that the resolution was not in line with the AHA’s mission by engaging in political activism on contentious issues rather than promoting historical scholarship.
Such a move would alienate members and thereby stifle intellectual exchange, which was a core value of the association. The ADL said that while a veto would result in backlash, it knew that many members were troubled by the resolution.
Greenblatt contended that a resolution accusing Israel of intentionally engaging in a campaign to destroy Palestinian educational facilities would destroy the AHA’s credibility and reputation, as there was no evidence for such a project.
“This resolution serves to demonize Israel, marginalize Jewish voices, and perpetuate falsehoods that have no place in a scholarly association like AHA,” said Greenblatt.
The American Jewish Committee and Academic Engagement Network also sent a letter to the AHA council urging them to veto the scholasticide resolution. The AJC and AEN argued that scholasticide was an obscure invented term that had no international legal standing and had never been applied to any country other than Israel.
The letter said no serious study had been made into the scholasticide charge, and there was no Israeli campaign to destroy Palestinian education, but it may have been the result of Hamas tactics to utilize civilian infrastructure.
“The preposterous accusation of ‘scholasticide’ sidesteps the strategic realities of military engagement against a brutal terrorist organization in favor of an unsubstantiated claim that villainizes Israel,” said the AJC and AEN.
The resolution, first introduced on November 25, called for a permanent ceasefire to halt the “scholasticide” and for the organization to form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.
“The United States government has supplied Israel with the weapons being used to commit this scholasticide,” read the resolution. “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.”