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The American Historical Association’s Set of Anti-Israel Lies
IDF materials showing alleged Hamas tunnel infrastructure located beneath schools in the Gaza Strip. Photo: IDF
Napoleon Bonaparte, himself a giant of history, famously remarked that “history is a set of lies agreed upon.” Centuries later, the American Historical Association is on the precipice of taking the French revolutionary’s quip literally.
Boasting over 10,000 historians in its ranks, the American Historical Association “promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life,” according to its website. However, recent events suggest members lack historical thinking even within the American Historical Association’s own activities.
On Sunday, more than 400 members of the academic association voted to advance a resolution condemning Israel for the imaginary crime of “scholasticide.” The resolution alleges that Israel is intentionally destroying the education system in the Gaza Strip.
Contrary to the American Historical Association’s mission, the resolution – advanced by radical pseudointellectuals – eschews “historical thinking in public life.” Instead, it employs partisan talking points devoid of evidence and context. In other words, to adopt the resolution isn’t to advance historical thinking; it’s to agree to a set of lies.
The resolution lists a few bases for its allegation, such as the destruction of schools and universities in Gaza during the war. Yet nowhere does the resolution contend with the critical questions of intent and legal and moral responsibility. It assumes criminality and malice on the part of the Jewish State without evidence.
But intent and responsibility matter. No one denies that schools have been destroyed during the war launched by Hamas. At issue is why they’ve been destroyed.
The resolution omits any context and history that address those questions. These omissions are especially notable given that no one at the American Historical Association is privy to the targeting process and decision-making inside the Israel Defense Forces command structure.
In Gaza, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have systematically exploited schools and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes. This isn’t just Israeli propaganda – the IDF has published countless videos and images of terrorists exploiting civilian infrastructure. Just a few days ago, drone footage shared by the IDF showed numerous weapons hidden inside yet another school in Jabaliya. The United Nations has admitted, on many occasions, the existence of terror tunnels and weapons on the premises of UNRWA schools. Palestinian officials have published documentary evidence of it, and Hamas has even filmed itself using such facilities. Substantial evidence shows that Gazan schoolteachers and officials were involved in terrorist organizations and even participated in the atrocities of October 7, 2023.
This information has obvious relevance, as it explains why schools are being hit during an ongoing armed conflict.
Under international law, parties to a conflict are “to the maximum extent feasible,” supposed to “avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas” and take “other necessary precautions to protect the civilian population, individual civilians, and civilian objects under their control against the danger resulting from military operations.” Hamas has brazenly violated these legal obligations.
On Israel’s part, it is true that schools are normally civilian objects that are given protection under the law of armed conflict. However, schools lose their protection as civilian objects when they are used to make an effective contribution to military action, at which point they become lawful military objectives. Israel is not obligated to refrain from striking terrorists or arms depots merely because they were cynically located in a civilian area.
As explained by the US Department of Defense Law of War Manual (see section 5.12.3.4), “[t]he party that employs human shields in an attempt to shield military objectives from attack assumes responsibility” for injury to civilians, though any strike must still abide by other legal rules such as proportionality.
This is common sense. To erase Hamas’ responsibility for its systematic embedding of military infrastructure in civilian areas — unprecedented in both extent and sophistication — is to incentivize further human shielding and result in greater human suffering for both Israeli and Gazan civilians.
It is thus telling that the same people charging Israel with the imaginary crime of “scholasticide” are silent as to Hamas’ commission of the real crime of human shielding. Their failure to acknowledge how the war began — with the invasion and commission of unspeakable atrocities by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians — is further telling. It is well documented that Hamas’ plans for October 7 explicitly included the targeting of elementary schools and youth centers in Israeli communities in order to “kill as many people as possible.” The contrasting silence from the American Historical Association resolution’s authors regarding Hamas’ plans to turn schools into slaughterhouses rings loud.
With this little bit of historical context and thinking, the game that members of the American Historical Association are playing becomes clear. This has nothing to do with the organization’s mission or concern for humanity. It’s about unacademic activists attempting to get historians to agree to a set of lies. Should the association wish to maintain its credibility and the integrity of the field of history, the choice is clear. It must reject this depraved resolution.
David M. Litman is a Senior Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
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IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence
Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – The IDF released a statement after an incident during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Saturday night, denying that the trooped fired live ammunition.
This comes at the heels of arson incidents by settlers against Palestinian villages, with clashes breaking out. The IDF said that its soldiers had come under attack on Friday as they entered the area of Kafr Malik, the site of the disturbances, by Israeli civilians. “The undermining of the rule of law and the use of violence by a radical minority harm security and stability in the area.”
The IDF later said that “an initial investigation indicates that IDF forces did not fire live ammunition at Israeli civilians in the area. It should be clarified that the battalion commander’s force operating in the Baal Hatzor area of the Binyamin brigade did not fire live ammunition at all.” On the other hand, the civilians claimed this was false, posting a video that showed shell casings on the ground right next to where the troops were deployed.
Meanwhile, the police requested the remand of six individuals, two of whom are minors, to be extended in connection with the incident.
The IDF later said that, “in another area within the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the clash by masked individuals from an ambush. The force responded with a warning shot of three bullets.” A possible connection “between this incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was injured by live fire” is being investigated.
After the incidents late last week, the IDF issued an unusual directive for soldiers to exercise special vigilance and also prepare for scenarios involving nationalist incidents perpetrated by Israeli citizens. The directive was issued after a military vehicle was set on fire inside a Jewish settlement, the tires of an armored David vehicle were punctured, and a community policing caravan near the community of Beit El was also set on fire.
“The security establishment system is highly alert,” a security official told i24NEWS. “We are seeing an escalation on the ground – and if you cannot leave a military vehicle in a Jewish community without it being burned in the sector, it is a sign that the situation is dangerous.”
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Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End
US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.
But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried.
“A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike.
“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.
NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH
The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
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Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.
Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.
“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”
The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.
The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.
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