Earlier this month, the American Historical Association’s (AHA) leadership once again overruled its own members, blocking a resolution on scholasticide in Gaza and vetoing a second resolution concerning the escalating repression of scholars in the United States — particularly those who have spoken out about this destruction.
The votes were not close. Nearly 80 percent of attendees to the AHA’s annual conference on January 8–11 supported these measures after debate and direct appeals from Palestinian colleagues whose universities, archives, and libraries have been reduced to rubble.
This decision is not merely disappointing. It is antidemocratic and morally evasive, and it reflects a racist viewpoint: the AHA’s defense of historical inquiry weakens when the subjects are Palestinian and the politics are therefore deemed too dangerous.
Professional associations derive their legitimacy and authority from their members. When an elected council repeatedly nullifies decisive votes, it converts shared governance into procedural theater. The council’s justification — that these resolutions fall outside the association’s proper scope — is unconvincing on its face. Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s universities, libraries, archives, and cultural institutions. Hundreds of our colleagues and tens of thousands of their students have been deprived of any meaningful access to education.
As the AHA’s own constitution states, the purpose of the association
shall be 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historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching, and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of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.
If the defense of our Palestinian colleagues and students does not fall within this remit, it is hard to imagine what does.
The council’s veto sends a chilling message to historians already navigating an increasingly punitive academic environment. Faculty and students who speak about Palestine face harassment, job loss, blacklisting, and institutional discipline. By refusing even a symbolic defense of academic freedom in Gaza, the AHA aligns itself not with its most vulnerable colleagues but with the structures that seek to silence us.
This is not neutrality. It is abdication.