Harvard publisher cancels journal issue on Palestine, cites ‘a number of complex issues'

Indian Express

4 days ago

In the wake of the standoff between United States administration and Harvard University, the Harvard Education Publishing Group, a prestigious American education journal's publisher, last month, abruptly canceled the release of a special issue titled, 'education and Palestine,' The Guardian reported.
The special issue, which was set to be published this summer was almost ready, as contracts with most authors were finalized and articles were edited, the report noted. On June 9, in an email to the issue's contributors, the publisher cited 'a number of complex issues', taking authors and editors by surprise, The Guardian learnt.
This remarkable move comes amid an escalation of United States' confrontation with Harvard University, where it has warned that the elite institution could lose its accreditation over allegations related to 'antisemitism' on campus. Officials have accused elite universities in the US of fostering leftist ideologies and failing to protect Jewish students amid brewing tensions on campus.
What did the special issue entail?
The special issue of the journal covered topics such as the annihilation of Gaza's schools to the challenges of teaching about Israel and Palestine in the US.
The issue was intended to promote 'scholarly conversation on education and Palestine amid repression, occupation, and genocide,' as per internal emails accessed by The Guardian. It included research articles, essays and other writings on topics ranging from education in Israel-Palestine and among the Palestinian diaspora, to academic freedom in the US.
The journal articles explored the evolution of the concept of 'scholasticide', a term describing the systematic annihilation of education, first coined during Israel's 2008 invasion of Gaza; the 'ethical and educational responsibilities' of English language teachers in the West Bank; and the impact of 'crackdowns on dissent' on teaching about Palestine in US higher education institutions, according to finalized abstracts of the articles shared with The Guardian.
What did the cancellation email state?
The email sent to the body of authors and editors, announcing the cancellation of the issue, did not exactly cite 'antisemitism' as its reason. The executive director of the publishing group, Jessica Fiorillo, wrote that the decision stemmed from an 'inadequate review process' and the need for 'considerable copy editing'.
Intimating them that the issue was being pulled altogether, Fiorillo claimed the manuscripts were 'unready for publication', in part due to a copy editor's resignation. She also cited an unspecified 'failure to adhere to an adequate review process', a 'lack of internal alignment' between the authors, editors and the publisher, and 'the lack of a clear and expedient path forward to resolving the myriad issues at play'.
'This difficult situation is exacerbated by very significant lack of agreement about the path forward, including and especially whether to publish such a special issue at this time,' she wrote in her email, as seen by The Guardian. She added that the cancellation was not 'due to censorship of a particular viewpoint nor does it connect to matters of academic freedom'.
Chronology of the cancellation
The speculations began when Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School, and the writer of the afterword for the special issue, requested to amend his contract with the Harvard Educational Review (HER) to add a clause seeking to safeguard his academic freedom, which was later declined by the journal.
Days later, the journal's editorial board wrote to the authors, citing an 'increasingly challenging climate' and asking for their availability for a meeting, which never ended up happening, as per The Guardian report.
However, this was not the first time the publisher tried to pressurise the journal editors. In January this year, the editors were told that an 'institutional review' of the manuscripts would be required. Moreover, in February, the publisher attempted to alter the back cover of the spring issue promoting some of the forthcoming articles.
As per an editor quoted by The Guardian, the publisher acknowledged that it was seeking a 'risk assessment' legal review by Harvard's counsel out of fear the issue's publication would prompt 'antisemitism' claims, which authors and editor referred to as an 'unprecedented' at that stage of publication. 'This sends a dangerous message to scholars globally: that academic publishing contracts are conditional, revocable, and subject to external political calculations,' they wrote in a letter to the journal's editorial board and publisher in the month of May.
However, less than a month later, the special issue was pulled out entirely. Reacting to the move, one of the editors of the HER, said that the censorship of the issue is 'exactly how authoritarianism grows'.
Next steps
Many scholars have come to refer to the incident as the 'Palestine exception' to academic freedom.
The authors are now in talks with other journals and are hopeful their pieces can be published as planned. The Guardian's interviewees, including authors and journal's editor, all expressed fear that the incident would deter other scholars from pursuing work on Palestine.
Other steps taken by Trump administration against Harvard
Harvard has been facing a brutal battle with the Trump administration, after it targeted the Ivy League University for failing to keep Jewish students safe and allowing antisemitism to flourish.
Soon after university protests against Israel's war in Gaza gained traction, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sought information on various foreign national visa holders who have been a part of 'illegal and violent' activities within the campus. Eventually, the US Secretary of Homeland Security ordered the DHS to revoke Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification even after receiving a detailed list with the number and information of enrolled foreign students. In a letter to the university, the Secretary wrote that current students would need to transfer or risk losing their legal status.
The University has so far managed to sue the administration on the matter, with Judge Burroughs issuing a ruling against Trump's June 4 proclamation, where he had said that any foreign national who enrolled at the university would be banned from entering the US.
Harvard also sued the Trump administration in April this year against the funds freeze, saying the administration was using 'leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard'. The New York Times reported about Harvard receiving seven stop-work orders for research awards between April 14 and May 6, after which 950 such orders totalling $2.4 billion were passed.
Most recently, the US Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced that they had notified Harvard's accrediting agency that the university had potentially violated federal law by failing to address claims of harassment against Jewish students. Losing accreditation would have severe consequences, including making Harvard students ineligible for federal financial aid.