Scholasticide in Gaza: History is screaming to the Present

AMMAN — The American Historical Association (AHA), the world’s largest body of professional historians, recently ignited a debate after passing a resolution condemning Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s education system – only to have its elected council veto the measure. 

The resolution accused Israel of committing “scholasticide,” a term coined by Palestinian academic Karma Nabulsi in 2009 to describe the systematic destruction of Palestinian educational institutions. While the resolution gained support at the AHA’s annual convention on January 15, the elected council ultimately vetoed it, fuelling an intense ethical and political debate over the role of historians in times of crisis. 

AHA’s Veto : A controversial silence ?

Founded in 1884, the AHA has long played a central role in shaping historical discourse. Yet, its leadership’s rejection of the resolution underscores the tension between academic neutrality and moral accountability. 

AHA convention-goers overwhelmingly approved the resolution on January 15, but the association’s 16-member elected council vetoed it without allowing a full membership vote. The council could have either accepted the resolution or referred it to AHA’s 10,450 members but chose to reject it. 

In its written explanation, the council condemned the destruction of Palestinian educational institutions in Gaza but argued the resolution fell outside of AHA’s mission, which focuses on promoting historical research, teaching, and preservation rather than political advocacy.

However, this stance was met with backlash from scholars who believe that remaining silent in the face of destruction is itself a political act. 

“Historians who opposed the scholasticide resolution insisted that taking a position would harm the AHA, which is supposedly a ‘non-political’ organisation. The truth is that our tax dollars have funded 15 months of Israeli annihilation: not taking a stance a position will leave a lasting stain on the association and the discipline. Silence is complicity,” said Sherene Seikaly, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, in an interview with The Jordan Times. “The task of the historian is to ask hard questions and to take difficult positions, not when the dust settles, but as the fire reigns,” she added. 

Notably, the AHA’s hesitation stands in contrast to its previous actions. In 2022, the association swiftly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, issuing a statement denouncing Vladimir Putin’s distortion of history to justify military aggression. 

“The opposition to the scholasticide resolution thus deems the question of Palestine as ‘political’ and Palestinian lives as less valuable,” Seikaly said. 

Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History at New York University and former AHA president, emphasised that scholasticide is a recognised phenomenon under international law. 

“The right to learn and preserve historical evidence should be included in the broader category of human rights,” Weistein told The Jordan Times. “And I believe that anyone who is a historian and claims that their work is ‘not political’ is either a fool or a scoundrel. It is utter nonsense to say that historians should stay out of politics. Every decision we make – what we research, what archives we explore, what histories we choose to amplify, is imbued with a vision of the world that I would describe as political.”

As to whether the AHA, as an organisation, should stay out of politics, Weistein said : “The very defence of history as a discipline is political, the association is engaged in advocacy by its very nature. During my time as a president, the AHA issued a statement severely criticising a move by the European Union to criminalise Holocaust denial, including in work by historians. Needless to say, no one on the AHA executive council was in favour of Holocaust denial, but we argued that his was the sort of issue that should be ‘adjudicated’ by other – better – historians, and not be a matter for the criminal justice system. How is that not political ?”

Erasing Palestinian intellectual heritage

While the AHA debates its stance, the reality on the ground in Gaza grows more dire by the day. Since the war broke out in October 2023, Israel’s military assault has led to the widespread destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure. 

The destruction extends far beyond physical buildings. “Armed and abetted by the United States, Israel has destroyed 80% of schools and every single university in the Gaza Strip. Israel has targeted and killed scholars from across the humanities, social sciences, and STEM. Israel has destroyed almost every library, archive, and cultural centre in the Strip,” Seikaly said, adding that centuries of endowments, collections, and documents are now gone forever.

Beyond destruction, evidence has emerged of Israeli forces repurposing Palestinian schools as military outposts and detention centres. The European-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented such cases as the Salah Al-Din Preparatory School in Gaza City, turned into a detention and interrogation facility in February 2024, and other civilian buildings, including schools, being systematically demolished after being used as military headquarters. The Human Rights organisation stated that such actions violate international humanitarian law, which mandates the protection of civilian infrastructure. 

A generation without education

In April 2024, UN experts issued an urgent warning over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, and the mass killing, arrest, and detention of students and educators. 

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also underscored the severity of the situation: “The education system in Gaza no longer exists. Children can no longer find a place to learn.” The UNICEF echoed this assessment, confirming the complete collapse of the educational system in Gaza. 

The consequences of this annihilation are dire. According to UN figures, more than 5,500 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors have been killed during Israeli assaults. More than 7,800 students and 756 teachers have been injured. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed that 60% of educational institutions, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed, including 76 schools that were directly targeted, and at least 625,000 students are now left without access to education. 

The destruction of Israa University in January 2024 marked a grim milestone – the last remaining university in Gaza reduced to rubble. 

“Even UN-designated ‘safe zones’ have not been spared, with schools sheltering displaced civilians bombed repeatedly. The persistent attacks are depriving yet another generation of Palestinians of their future,” the UN statement read.  

The impact of this devastation extends beyond the present, threatening the very survival of Palestinian culture, history, and intellectual life. “When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams,” the experts stated. 

Scholasticide: a key feature of genocide 

The term “scholasticide” describes a deliberate genocidal strategy to dismantle an entire society’s ability to document its history and build its future, as well as its right to knowledge. The implications go beyond the immediate loss of human lives and infrastructures. 

“The concept of ‘scholasticide’ is significant both as a means to denounce forms of destruction that wreak permanent damage on the society, but also as a way of thinking about ‘repairing’ that damage (to the extent possible) when the war finally ends,” Weinstein said. 

Historically, the destruction of educational institutions has been a hallmark of genocide. From the systematic targeting of schools in Iraq to the mass killing of educators in Gaza, scholars have long documented how obliterating intellectual heritage aims to erase a people’s past.