Mideast studies in US in crossfire of Trump-Harvard fight

New Straits Times

3 days ago

THE issue of academic research on the Middle East has become a political flashpoint in the United States, where critics of Israel allege a "Palestine exception" exists when it comes to free speech rights.
Case in point, recently a special edition of the prestigious Harvard Educational Review (HER) was in the works, entirely dedicated to the hot-button issue of the Palestinians – the articles had been painstakingly written, edited and approved.
But authors said they received an unusual demand for a final readout by lawyers, which soon derailed their efforts.
The publisher's stunning late-stage decision to scrap the entire edition reflects the overheated political climate in the US where academic research on the Middle East has attracted accusations of so-called "wokeism" and "anti-Semitism" from President Donald Trump, as conflict rages in the region.
The edition began taking shape when, in March 2024 – six months after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the Israeli reprisals in the Gaza Strip – the renowned Harvard publication called for papers for a special issue on "Education and Palestine."
Anthropologist Thea Abu El-Haj and her colleagues submitted a paper on "scholasticide," a term describing the destruction of an education system, like in Gaza, with reference to the experience of Palestinian teachers during the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990.
But then the authors received phone calls informing them that the text would have to be submitted to Harvard's Office of the General Counsel for a "risk assessment."
"I have been publishing for decades in academic journals – including HER twice –and I have never been asked for this kind of review," said El-Haj, a professor at Columbia University's Barnard College.
After the authors objected to "censorship," the director of Harvard Education Press Jessica Fiorillo, told the authors the special issue had been cancelled in its entirety.
Fiorillo denied "censorship" in a memo to the authors, seen by AFP, blaming inadequate review because the editors insisted on limiting the publisher's involvement to copyediting – without touching the "politically charged content."
"The only explanation that makes sense to me is that this is another instance of what has been called the 'Palestine exception' to free speech," said El-Haj, accusing Harvard of not upholding free speech while proclaiming to champion it amid its fight with Trump.
Since returning to power, Trump has accused prestigious US universities of anti-Semitism for failing to protect Jewish students during protests against Israel's war in Gaza.
In an escalating war of attrition against Harvard, Trump sought to cut more than US$2.6 billion of funding to the Ivy League university, while seeking to block entry of international students – a quarter of its enrolment.
Harvard said it had strengthened measures to protect Jewish and Israeli students while fighting the government's measures in court.
"The chilling climate for scholarly inquiry about Palestine at Harvard (and beyond) has been difficult for some time. Faculty, staff, and students have understandably felt a generalised cloud of fear and anxiety," Margaret Litvin, an Arabic literature professor at Boston University, told AFP.
At the start of the year, Harvard also adopted a definition of anti-Semitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
That definition is contested, however, as critics argue it may prevent criticism of Israel.
That distinction appears to be at the heart of the furor over the "education and Palestine" edition of the HER, said Chandni Desai, a University of Toronto professor, who was supposed to pen an article for the journal.
Harvard University did not comment.
The submitted articles would "likely fail" to have passed the IHRA definition test because "all the pieces are critical of Israel," Desai said.
"We've never seen an entire special issue collection being cancelled – especially after... contracts have been signed and reviews and revisions done."