NEW YORK CITY—Members of the American Historical Association attending the group’s annual conference voted 428 to 88 on Sunday to approve a resolution against the “killing of students” in Gaza and the US government’s funding of Israel’s war.
The move makes the American Historical Association the latest academic group to voice a stance on the Gaza war—despite strong criticism, even from the president-elect, of representing Palestine in the school.
Scholastice means to deliberately end the educational system. The resolution, which says Israel’s military campaign has “successfully destroyed Gaza’s education system,” calls for a permanent ceasefire and for the organization to form a committee to help rebuild “Gaza’s educational infrastructure.”
The resolution was passed after a chaotic, hour-long, standing-room-only meeting in the hotel’s ballroom that was so packed that some attendees could not get inside. Before the members voted, they heard a formal debate about the decision that included five people who were in favor of the decision and five who were against it. All the while there was thunderous applause, cheers and applause from the speakers who advocated the decision and muted applause from those who opposed it.
Before the debate began, one member, Rice University professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti, stood in front of the room and accused the organization’s executive director, Jim Grossman, of making a “political statement” against the decision in his report that opened the meeting. (Grossman had said “we are not a political organization” but then said he was just giving his report.)
When it came time to vote, some members criticized the way of writing yes or no on the note cards; those present were given many cards. After the debate but before the result was announced, one member pointed to another and accused him of recording the meeting against the rules, which led to Grossman checking his phone and concluding that it did not happen.
When the total votes were announced, the overwhelming majority were met with chants of “Free Palestine!” But Sunday’s vote is not the end of the process.
The decision will now go to the elected body of the association, which can accept, block or refuse to accept. That last option would send the decision to the union’s estimated 10,450 members for a vote. Grossman said it will take a majority of those who vote to win.
The debate going forward may be similar to what was heard on Sunday: arguments about when scholarly organizations should speak out, and, if they do, what they should say.
“History screams so far,” said supporter Sherene Seikaly, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “The AHA has been very quiet. Peace goes hand in hand.”
But opponent Natalia Petrzela, a professor at the New School, noted that the resolution does not mention the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israelis or the hostages Hamas took.
“Passing this decision as the AHA’s opinion must be detrimental to the work of history and education,” Petrzela said. He said it would only confirm allegations of political bias in the school, and “this attack will increase in the future. [Trump] management.”
The Executive Council of the Modern Language Association, whose annual meeting will be held later this week, has faced criticism for not allowing members of the organization to even vote on a resolution that would accuse Israel of killing the school. The MLA resolution would have gone further than the American Historical Association by re-authorizing boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
The American Historical Association’s decision cites a group of independent United Nations experts who, according to a previous news report from the UN, said, “It may be reasonable to ask whether there is a deliberate attempt to completely destroy the Palestinian education system.”
That news release was in April, just six months into the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. The UN release stated that, at that time, the last university in Gaza had already been destroyed and “more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors were killed in Gaza, and more than 7,819 students and 756 teachers were injured.”
Historians of Peace and Democracy have documented this decision. Van Gosse, who is the organization’s chairman and an emeritus professor of history at Franklin & Marshall College, said he and others founded the group 20 years ago to oppose the Iraq war.
A few hours before the vote on Sunday evening, another group called Historians of Palestine held a rally outside a conference hotel near Times Square. About 75 people listened to the speakers, including Takriti, who was holding a bull’s horn, standing next to the crowd holding a banner that read, “Ceasefire Now!”
“There are opponents out there who deny the truth and, importantly for us historians, use historical lies to promote that,” said Takriti, an associate professor of modern Arab history, as the audience chanted “Shame!” He said Sunday’s decision was just the beginning.
“Nowadays, some of these people will read books to thank the world here in this place full of colonies, but they don’t know what they are reading,” said Takriti. “They have not internalized what they are talking about. To them they are just words without meaning, and Gaza proves that. Because if they had any understanding, if they had any feeling for other people, if they did not engage in pure narcissistic-violent behavior, they would have made decisions much stronger than those proposed from the beginning of this. killing people.”
The association has spoken about current events before. In February 2022, it issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms Russia’s recent aggression against Ukraine. This act of blatant military aggression violates the sovereignty of independent Ukraine, threatening the stability of the wider region and the world. ” It added, “We strongly support the nation of Ukraine and its people in resisting Russian military aggression and the twisted myth created by President Putin to justify his violation of international norms.”
Source link
