Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza

Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with $17.9 billion in
military aid between October 2023 and October 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;

Whereas it is “the mission of the Organization of American Historians…to advocate for history and the equitable
treatment of all practitioners of history,” and Israel’s scholasticide in Gaza has made it impossible to practice history
and eradicated its practitioners;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Organization of American Historians condemns the Israeli violence in Gaza that has
resulted in the scholasticide documented above;

Be it further resolved that the Organization of American Historians calls for a permanent ceasefire to halt this
scholasticide;

Finally, be it resolved that the Organization of American Historians form a volunteer committee to work with other
organizations to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.

To sign this resolution please complete this form.