\n<\/p>\n
More than 120 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as \u201ccensorship\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review \u2013 which was first revealed by the Guardian in July \u2013 as an \u201cattempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies\u201d.<\/p>\n
The writers note that the issue\u2019s censorship is also an example of \u201canti-Palestinian discrimination, obstructing the dissemination of knowledge on Palestine at the height of the genocide in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n
The scholars also asked for the publisher to apologize to the authors, commission a new special issue on Palestine and implement safeguards to protect editorial independence. They pledged to boycott the journal\u2019s publisher and the affiliated Harvard Education Press until then.<\/p>\n
The special issue of the prestigious education journal was planned six months into Israel\u2019s war in Gaza to tackle questions about the education of Palestinians, education about Palestine and Palestinians, and related debates in schools and colleges in the US, as the Guardian previously reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe field of education has an important role to play in supporting students, educators, and policymakers in contextualizing what has been happening in Gaza,\u201d the journal\u2019s editors wrote in their call for abstracts \u2013 which came against the backdrop of the devastation of Gaza\u2019s educational infrastructure, including the shuttering of hundreds of schools and destruction of all of the territory\u2019s universities.<\/p>\n
More than a year later, the special issue was just about ready \u2013 all articles had been edited, contracts with most authors had been finalized, and the issue had been advertised at academic conferences and on the back cover of the previous one. But late in the process, the Harvard Education Publishing Group (HEPG), a division of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which publishes the journal, demanded that all articles be submitted to a \u201crisk assessment\u201d review by Harvard\u2019s general counsel \u2013 an unprecedented demand.<\/p>\n
When the authors protested, the publisher responded by abruptly cancelling the issue altogether. In an email obtained by the Guardian, the group\u2019s executive director, Jessica Fiorillo, cited what she described as an inadequate review process and the need for \u201cconsiderable copy editing\u201d as well as a \u201clack of internal alignment\u201d about the special issue. She said that the decision was not \u201cdue to censorship of a particular viewpoint nor does it connect to matters of academic freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
The authors and editors flatly rejected that characterization, telling the Guardian that the cancellation set a dangerous precedent and was an example of what many scholars have come to refer to as the \u201cPalestine exception\u201d to academic freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision by HEPG to abandon their own institutional mission \u2013 as well as the responsibilities that their world-leading stature demands \u2013 is scholasticide in action,\u201d the dozens of scholars who signed the recent letter also wrote, using a term coined by Palestinian scholars to describe Israel\u2019s \u201cdeliberate and systematic destruction\u201d of Palestine\u2019s educational system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unconscionable that HEPG have chosen to publicly frame their cancellation of the special issue as a matter of academic quality, while omitting key publicly-reported facts that point to censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arathi Sriprakash, a professor of sociology and education at the University of Oxford and one of the letter\u2019s signatories, told the Guardian that the special issue\u2019s cancellation has mobilised so many education scholars \u201cprecisely because we recognise the grave consequences of such threats to academic freedom and academic integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ongoing genocidal violence in Gaza has involved the physical destruction of the entire higher education system there, and now in many education institutions around the world there are active attempts to shut down learning about what\u2019s happening altogether. As educationalists, we have to remain steadfast in our commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and learning without fear or threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ordeal around the special Palestine issue played out against the backdrop of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on US higher education institutions\u2019 autonomy on the basis of combating alleged antisemitism on campuses.<\/p>\n
Harvard is the only university that has sued the administration in response to the White House cutting billions of dollars in federal funds and other punishing measures it has unleashed on universities. But internally, Harvard has pre-empted many of the administration\u2019s demands, including by demoting scholars, scrapping initiatives giving space to Palestinian narratives and adopting a controversial definition of antisemitism that critics say is antithetical to academic inquiry.<\/p>\n
In conversations with the Harvard Educational Review editors, the journal\u2019s publisher acknowledged that it was seeking legal review of the articles out of fears that their publication would prompt antisemitism claims, an editor at the journal said.<\/p>\n
Harvard is reportedly close to finalizing a settlement with the Trump administration along the lines of those reached by other top universities.<\/p>\n
Thea Abu El-Haj, a Palestinian-American anthropologist of education at Barnard College and one of 21 contributors to the cancelled special issue, criticized the university\u2019s handling of the matter as yet another sign of institutional capitulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the universities \u2013 or in this case a university press \u2013 are not willing to stand up for what is core to their mission, I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d she told the Guardian last month. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Harvard Graduate School of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest letter but in an earlier statement to the Guardian wrote that the publisher \u201cremains deeply committed to our robust editorial process\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last month, the free speech group PEN America also condemned the special issue\u2019s cancellation as a \u201cblatant assault on academic freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanceling an entire issue so close to publication is highly unusual, virtually unheard of,\u201d Kristen Shahverdian, the program director for the group\u2019s campus free speech initiative, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilencing these scholarly voices robs academics, students, and the public of the opportunity to engage with their insights. It also sends a chilling message in the context of the Trump administration\u2019s unrelenting pressure on Harvard University and mounting political interference in higher education, including efforts that target scholarship on Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, the Middle East Studies Association of North America (Mesa) and its committee on academic freedom also wrote a public letter to Harvard\u2019s president, Alan Garber, condemning the issue\u2019s cancellation as an \u201cegregious violation of the principles of academic freedom and a blatant betrayal of Harvard University\u2019s avowed commitment to scholarly integrity and freedom of expression\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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