The Harvard Educational Review (HER), a prestigious academic journal, has cancelled a special issue on 'education and Palestine' shortly before its planned publication, sparking allegations of censorship. The decision, made by the Harvard Education Publishing Group on 9 June, came after months of work by contributors and editors, who were informed via email of 'a number of complex issues' leading to the cancellation.
The special issue was conceived in March 2024, six months into Israel's war in Gaza, when education in the territory was decimated. The call for submissions sought articles on the education of Palestinians, teaching about Palestine, and related US debates. Topics ranged from the destruction of Gaza's schools to challenges of teaching about Israel and Palestine in American classrooms.
Scholars involved in the issue have expressed dismay, attributing the cancellation to what they call the 'Palestine exception' to academic freedom. Thea Abu El-Haj, a Palestinian-American anthropologist at Barnard College, questioned the purpose of a university press that fails to uphold its core mission. Internal emails reviewed by The Guardian reveal fears of legal liability and a lack of alignment within the publishing group.
Harvard has been in a bitter dispute with the Trump administration over federal funding and international student eligibility, but has also faced criticism for cracking down on Palestine-related scholarship. In January, as part of a legal settlement with Jewish students, the university adopted a controversial definition of antisemitism that critics say conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Paul Belsito, a Harvard Graduate School of Education spokesperson, stated that the cancellation followed nine months of discussions and an 'overall lack of internal alignment'. The authors, however, see the move as a failure of institutional courage, with one describing Harvard's internal actions as more complicated than its public resistance to Trump.
