A man rides his bicycle past the al-Aqsa University, leveled by Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on February 15, 2024.
Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images

Why AHA Members support this resolution:

“The AHA has an ethical obligation to uphold the right of all people to freely teach and learn about their past.”

– Pamela Murray, University of Alabama at Birmingham

“As a professor and scholar, I value education, teaching, and the preservation of archives and institutions of learning. This is why I support the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza. I hope you do too!”

– Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology

“The resolution presents an opportunity for the AHA to be on the right side of history. Such gestures are necessary for that ‘long arc’ to bend in the right direction.”

– Lewis Siegelbaum, Michigan State University

“The Geneva Convention (1949) contains provisions that specifically forbid intentional or gratuitous damage to undefended cultural heritage. This is why I support the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza. I hope you do as well!”

– Elizabeth Bishop, Orient-Institut Beirut

“My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who taught me that to remain silent in the face of genocide is to become complicit. I want to be part of a profession that will not remain silent.”

– Samantha Payne, College of Charleston

Click here to read more statements in support

a Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza

Scholasticide refers to the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

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.

Click here to read the powerful arguments made in favor of the resolution at the business meeting!

SIMILAR RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY OTHER ACADEMIC/PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

More than 2700 scholars of diverse disciplines from Universities across the United States signed this letter condemning Israel for the systematic targeting of academics, students, educational institutions and cultural heritage sites in Gaza, in violation of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law.

The professional associations of many other disciplines have already made statements of their own. See the examples below

Professional academic association statements re war in Israel-Palestine (or, Middle East)

  1. Latinx Studies Association:  Executive Council expressed “profound concern” for the destructive violence against the peoples in Gaza and against Jews in Israel, denounced “antisemitism, racism, apartheid and settler colonial violence”, and exhorted all sides to work towards a ceasefire.
  2. American Psychological Association: The APA issued a statement deploring “violations of human rights, adverse humanitarian consequences, deep psychological distress, and the loss of dignity and freedom”.  They condemned the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, and noted that “there can be no justification for cutting off access to basic necessities, such as electricity, food, and medicine”, stating that “all individuals deserve to live free of fear and violence so that their mental health and well-being can flourish”.
  3. Middle Eastern Studies Association: MESA has issued dozens of statements & letters from the Board condemning destruction of Gaza’s education sector; have issued joint statements on the “Ongoing Genocidal Violence against the Palestinian People & their Cultural Heritage”, written letters to the Biden and Netanyahu administrations, and publicly defended scholars who have been attacked for describing the violence as a “genocide”.
  4. American Sociological Association: The ASA passed a “resolution for justice in Palestine”, which noted the intimidation and punishment of pro-Palestinian scholars, the misrepresentation of criticism of Israeli policy as anti-Semitic, the total destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure and killing of its staff and students, called for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire”, and resolved to defend “scholars’ right to speak out against Zionist occupation”.
  5. American Medical Association: While avoiding mention of Israeli culpability,  AMA’s Board statement on Israel-Palestine conflict calls for “medical neutrality,” condemns denial of medical services as a weapon of war & military targeting of medical facilities.
  6. American Anthropological Association: has statement calling for an “end to the violence in the Middle East” & acknowledging the destructive effects of the Israeli occupation of Palestine including theft of Palestinian land, destruction of Palestinian homes, etc.
  7. American Library Association: passed a resolution deploring the destruction of libraries and cultural institutions in Gaza, called for the protection of all remaining such institutions, and urged both sides to uphold the Hague convention. The ALA also urged governments and NGOs to provide assistance with rebuilding.  

Follow this link to a toolkit of Actions Against Scholasticide, published by Scholars against the war on Palestine. The document provides many compelling reasons why scholars should act.

~Further Reading~