Democracy Now, Jan.6: American Historical Association Votes Overwhelmingly for Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza
The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” condemning Israel’s “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.”
The vote was a vote of 428 in favor and 88 opposed. And the resolution was written by Historians for Peace and Democracy. There were four abstentions.
The American Historical Association’s Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza reads, quote, “Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between October 2023 and June 2024. Whereas that campaign, beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures, has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system; Whereas in April 2024, UN experts expressed 'grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip' including [quote] 'the killing of 261 teachers and 95 university professors … which may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide,'” unquote.
My Dear Friends:
I would like to share with you the following published entries, LXXII, LXXXVII, LXXXIV and CXXII of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words to reflect on these relentless and indiscriminate Israeli strikes on Palestinian basic life structures and education system:
a girl convulsing
on the bloodstained classroom floor
smell of Gaza's air
screams cut off ...
another day, another school
bombed out
slanted moonlight
on a half-collapsed school wall
chalk poppies bloom
(FYI: "The Palestinian poppy (Anemone coronaria) is a non-official but more recognizable national symbol of Palestine. It's red, with black center and green leaves, evoking the primary colors of the Palestinian flag. And it symbolizes the relationship between Palestinians and their land, the bloodshed they have endured, as well as their resistance against Israeli occupation.")
a drift of olive leaves ...
my Gazan friend's kin living
in various bombed schools
To conclude today's post with the following newest entry:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLVIII: "silence upon silence"
ruins after ruins ...
these layers of silence
upon silence
We Cannot Be Bystanders to Genocide.
-- Chen-ou Liu
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
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