The academic journal Cultural Studies of Science Education, published by leading academic publisher Springer Nature, recently published an article “Science educators cannot remain silent: A call for Palestinian solidarity”, an Op-Ed format article (which the journal does publish) authored by a range of senior science educators and science education researchers, who noted their membership of various bodies including the British Educational Research Association, the Association for Science Teacher Education and the European Science Education Research Association.

The article focuses on the post October 7th Gaza war and includes assertions such as that the state of Israel deliberately killed at least 60,000 people, mainly civilians, and goes on to stridently support the implementation of BDS. The article also echoes the call of Refaat Alareer, the Gazan academic, poet and activist killed in Gaza in December 2023 to “bear witness” to Palestinian experiences.

It’s necessarily the case that the terrible deaths of thousands of people in Gaza requires pause, reflection and indeed perhaps activism. Yet it’s curious how an academic journal published by a leading publishing house, even one that publishes Op-Ed formats, could consider this article part of critical academic discourse, that is a discourse that looks at evidence, and recognizes nuance and complexity in the assessing of evidence. Of........

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