The leadership of the nation’s largest group of professional historians announced on Friday that it had vetoed a member-approved resolution condemning “scholasticide” in Gaza, saying that the measure went beyond the organization’s mission.
The resolution, introduced at the American Historical Association’s annual meeting this month, argued that the Israeli military’s response to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, had destroyed most of the enclave’s education infrastructure, and undermined Gazans’ right “to freely teach and learn about their past.” It was approved, 428 to 88, after a sometimes raucous debate.
In a carefully worded statement on Friday, the group’s executive council said it “deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities and archives in Gaza” without taking any position on whether the damage had been intentional.
But the measure passed by the membership, it said, was not in compliance with the group’s constitution and bylaws.
“It lies outside the scope of the association’s mission and purpose, defined in its constitution as ‘the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of kindred activities in the interest of history,’” it said.
James Grossman, the group’s executive director, said the vote on the council was 11 in favor of the veto, four against and one abstaining.
The resolution, introduced by the group Historians for Peace and Democracy, was the first of a string of proposed measures condemning Israel over the past decade to win approval by membership. The vote, which was open to all 4,000 members who attended the annual meeting, drew what several members described as a noticeably young and diverse crowd in support of the resolution.
On Friday, Margaret Power, a co-chair of Historians for Peace and Democracy and a retired professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, said the group was considering its response to the veto.
“We are extremely disappointed and shocked at the council’s decision, especially given the landslide victory in favor of the resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza,” she said.
In its resolution, Historians for Peace and Democracy said Israel had “effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system,” destroying 80 percent of its schools, all 12 of its institutions of higher learning and numerous libraries, archives, and cultural sites. As a basis for the charge, it cited a statement by United Nations experts in April 2024 that said Israel’s “pattern of attacks” amounted to “scholasticide.”
The Israeli government has disputed that report, saying it had no “doctrine that aims at causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure.” It blamed the destruction of Gaza’s schools on the “exploitation of civilian structures for terror purposes” by Hamas.
At the historical association, debate over the measure was just as much about the group’s proper role as about events in Gaza. In recent years, the group, which has roughly 14,000 members, has stepped up its advocacy efforts in Washington and taken a prominent role opposing state laws restricting teaching on race, sexuality and other subjects.
Some supporters of the Gaza resolution have accused the group’s leadership of having a double standard, pointing in particular to the council’s full-throated statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine days after it began.
Grossman said that statement had been tailored to focus on the historical arguments that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made to justify the invasion. “That historical narrative was considered false by just about every professional historian of that part of the world in the United States,” he said.
“Our critique was based on his abuse of history as the justification for the invasion,” Grossman said. “There is no similar consensus among historians in the United States regarding the historical issues on the table here.”
Grossman said the veto of the Gaza resolution did not reflect any categorical reluctance to take positions relating to the highly combustible issue of Israel and the Palestinians, which has upended many university campuses.
“We are less inclined to take positions when our membership is deeply divided,” Grossman said. But here, he reiterated, the issue was what he described as sticking to the group’s appropriately “narrow” mission.
“Our bylaws require we focus on history,” he said.
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