The Harvard Law Review Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza

[Uncle Joe]

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Harvard students protest for Palestine during the Yale-Harvard football game at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, CT November 18, 2023.

(Williams Paul / Icon Sportswire via AP)

On Saturday, the board of the Harvard Law Review voted not to publish “The Ongoing Nakba: Towards a Legal Framework for Palestine,” a piece by Rabea Eghbariah, a human rights attorney completing his doctoral studies at Harvard Law School. The vote followed what an editor at the law review described in an e-mail to Eghbariah as “an unprecedented decision” by the leadership of the Harvard Law Review to prevent the piece’s publication.

Eghbariah told The Nation that the piece, which was intended for the HLR Blog, had been solicited by two of the journal’s online editors. It would have been the first piece written by a Palestinian scholar for the law review. The piece went through several rounds of edits, but before it was set to be published, the president stepped in. “The discussion did not involve any substantive or technical aspects of your piece,” online editor Tascha Shahriari-Parsa, wrote Eghbariah in an e-mail shared with The Nation. “Rather, the discussion revolved around concerns about editors who might oppose or be offended by the piece, as well as concerns that the piece might provoke a reaction from members of the public who might in turn harass, dox, or otherwise attempt to intimidate our editors, staff, and HLR leadership.”

(snip)

In a statement that was shared with The Nation, a group of 25 HLR editors expressed their concerns about the decision. “At a time when the Law Review was facing a public intimidation and harassment campaign, the journal’s leadership intervened to stop publication,” they wrote. “The body of editors—none of whom are Palestinian—voted to sustain that decision. We are unaware of any other solicited piece that has been revoked by the Law Review in this way. “

(snip)

Today, The Nation is sharing the piece that the Harvard Law Review refused to run.

(snip)

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/harvard-law-review-gaza-israel-genocide/

[Goddessartist]

1. So very wrong.

This is awful. I read it the other day. Silencing voices of truth.

[enid602]

2. Profile

Hopefully, the piece will achieve a higher profile given this decision by Harvard.

[Goddessartist]

3. Yes. One can hope.

[Beastly Boy]

4. If there is anything Harvard Law Review knows, it's the law.

I fully understand their desire not to discredit themselves with content that makes a mockery of international law.

The Nation doesn't seem to have any such concerns about their credibility. To each their own.