As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom

As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom

A little more than a year later, the scale of destruction in Gaza was exponentially larger. The special issue, which was slated to be published this summer, was just about ready – contracts with most authors were finalized and articles were edited. They covered topics from the annihilation of Gaza’s schools to the challenges of teaching about Israel and Palestine in the US.

But on 9 June, the Harvard Education Publishing Group, the journal’s publisher, abruptly canceled the release. In an email to the issue’s contributors, the publisher cited “a number of complex issues”, shocking authors and editors alike, the Guardian has learned.

US universities have come under intensifying attacks from the Trump administration over accusations of tolerating antisemitism on campuses. Many have responded by restricting protest, punishing students and faculty outspoken about Palestinian rights, and scrutinizing academic programmes home to scholarship about Palestine.

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    But Harvard has also cracked down on Palestine scholarship, demotings scholars and canceling related programs. “Harvard is being held up as the heroic institution, but what’s happening internally is much more complicated,” said Abu El-Haj.

    In January, as part of a legal settlement with Jewish students who had accused Harvard of tolerating and promoting antisemitism on campus, the university adopted a controversial definition that critics argue conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel.

    In an email to the authors announcing the cancellation, the executive director of the publishing group did not cite antisemitism; she wrote the decision stemmed from what she described as an inadequate review process and the need for “considerable copy editing”.

    The journal’s editorial board rejected that characterization and said they had been sidelined by the publisher in making the decision. The decision to cancel the issue was “out of alignment with the values that have guided HER for nearly a century”, the board members wrote in a collective statement.

    Is Harvard one of those shithole red-state schools?