The American Historical Association passed a resolution accusing Israel of “scholasticide,” a campaign to deliberately destroy Gaza’s education system, the AHA announced.
The Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza, introduced November 25, passed 428-88 at an AHA annual meeting last week, charged that since the October 7 war began, Israel had intentionally and “effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system.”
“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.”
AHA 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 association based its resolution off an April 18 UN statement by UN officials warning that it “may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.”
The experts argued that at least 60% of educational facilities had been destroyed in the war launched in the wake of the October 7 massacre, and hundreds of thousands of students were left without access to education.
A call to stand against Israel
The Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed the resolution and called on nations to stand against the ostensible intentional destruction of the Gazan education system.
“The far-right Israeli government’s intentional obliteration of the entire educational system in Gaza is a clear example of scholasticide,” CAIR said on Facebook last Monday.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the resolution on Wednesday as political and biased.
The resolution contained “distorted accusations against Israel of intentionally destroying the Palestinian education system,” the ADL said on X/Twitter. “We urge the AHA council to veto it.”
Hamas terrorists have regularly used educational facilities as platforms for ambushes and other military purposes.