Dear Australian Association of Social Workers,

We would like to acknowledge that this letter was written from the unceded lands of Aboriginal people. This is, was and will always be the land of the Aboriginal people. They have lived harmoniously with these lands and waters for generations before the onslaught of colonisation. We recognise the brutality of settler colonial projects, both here and in Palestine.

We write to you as Australian Social Workers grieving the unparalleled normalised collective punishment and international human rights and humanitarian law violations inflicted by Israel on the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, we witness many of the world’s governments and institutions take sides or incoherently proclaim Israel’s right to self-defence and retaliation. We as Social Workers are deeply concerned with the lack of advocacy and neutral statements of solidarity from the Australian Association of Social Workers. We call upon the Australian Association of Social Workers to uphold its Code of Ethics with its foundation of social justice, to strongly advocate against the oppression and ethnic cleansing of an entire people.

 According to unanimous agreement amongst international Human Rights organisations globally such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Israel has been defined as an apartheid state regime and a military occupying force.

In March 2022, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories determined that the “political system of entrenched rule” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip “satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid”. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, concluded that the occupation of the Occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful due to its permanence and Israel’s measures to annex Palestinian land in law and in practice.

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch made the following statement:

“Israeli authorities have deprived millions of people of their basic rights by virtue of their identity as Palestinians. These longstanding policies and systematic practices box in, dispossess, forcibly separate, marginalize, and otherwise inflict suffering on Palestinians. In the Occupied Palestinian territories, movement restrictions, land expropriation, forcible transfer, denial of residency and nationality, and the mass suspension of civil rights constitute “inhuman[e] acts” set out under the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute. Under both legal standards, inhumane acts when carried out amid systematic oppression and with the intent to maintain domination make up the crime against humanity of apartheid.”

Experts around the world have warned of an ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. It is estimated that as of October 7th, more than 234,000 homes have been damaged across Gaza and 46,000 destroyed, amounting to about 60 percent of the housing in Gaza, which is home to approximately 2.3 million Palestinians. As the death toll rises and the United Nations warns of a human catastrophe, experts have urged for actions in the prevention of genocide.

So we ask you, the AASW, with acknowledgment to the above reputable sources: why has the AASW not publicly called for a ceasefire, despite overwhelming unanimous agreement from all major human rights organisations and despite social justice being at the core of our practice as Social Workers?

The AASW Practice Standard 3 outlines that “the AASW holds that social justice is a core principle that its members are obliged to promote and uphold for society in general and for the people with whom they work”. The bombardment on Gaza, and related attacks on Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, is a grave social justice issue that Social Workers and the AASW must not ignore. To meet this, this standard states that Social Workers need to “support action to enable people to live a life free of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence”. As of today, the death toll in Gaza exceeds 18,000 Palestinians, including 7,000 children and many unaccounted for under the rubble. This excludes the death toll of Palestinians prior to October the 7th and since the Nakba (the catastrophe) of May 1948 when more than 500 Palestinian villages were massacred and more than 750,000 Palestinians were violently forced out of their land creating one of the largest refugee groups we see today. It is important that we acknowledge this context and the ongoing violent occupation of Palestine.

We note that on the 10th of April 2023, the AASW released a public statement on behalf of Social Workers stating the following:

“Social workers in Australia stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. As a profession based in and working with communities and conflict, we recognise the role of civil society in standing up for peace and the recognition of dignity and respect of all people. Social workers will be responding to the human cost of military aggression in Ukraine. There are things we can do, even when confronted by geopolitical actions of this magnitude.”

As an institute proving capable of advocating for human rights and expressing public solidarity with an oppressed people, we call on the AASW to answer the following:

Why has the AASW confidently and publicly made a statement on behalf of Social Workers in Australia stating solidarity with the people of Ukraine, however has remained incoherent on the systematic oppression of Palestinian people and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

We call on the Australian Association of Social Workers to:

 ·      Recognize that their neutral stance during an ethnic cleansing of a group of people goes against our professions' code of ethics. In being neutral, our association is standing on the side of the oppressor.

·      Use their lobbying resources and political advocacy to demand a ceasefire.

 [A ceasefire for all parties is crucial to:

○ Prevent more deaths. More than 18,000 people have now been killed in Gaza including over 7,000 children, and many more injured. More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israel.

○ Ensure access to lifesaving emergency medical care and humanitarian aid. There are more than 35,000 wounded people in Gaza, with that number growing every hour. A ceasefire will enable people to safely reach access healthcare.

○ Enabling humanitarian organisations to safely enter Gaza, bringing in essential medical personnel and supplies, food, water and shelter materials.

○ Protecting medical infrastructure. A cessation of hostilities will prevent further attacks on vital healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and allow for the restoration of critical services.]

 ·      Use their lobbying resources and political advocacy to recognise Palestinians as refugees needing access to Temporary Humanitarian Concern visas, and advocate for government funding before and after their arrival.

 ·      We call upon the Australian Association of Social Workers to ensure organisations across Australia retract their efforts to systematically silence support for Palestine. Instead, use their institutional weight to ensure the safety of and provide support to all Palestinians in the workforce who are managing deep-rooted intergenerational trauma.

·      We call upon the Australian Association of social Workers to encourage organisations to retract from their efforts of silencing Palestinians and allies who speak out against the violence and colonialism, and acknowledge that no Palestinian or ally should face repercussions to their status of employment or appointment for doing so.

·      We call upon the AASW to release a full statement, consistent with their code of ethics, denouncing the atrocities occurring against the indigenous Palestinian people and to stand in solidarity with them.

As Social Workers it is our duty to call out racism, oppression and injustices as they occur. Our value system as a profession is being tried and we must choose whether to remain silent or take a stand against oppression and colonisation. We must reckon with our own history of colonisation and our relationship with the indigenous peoples in the lands we now call Australia. We call on you to acknowledge that what is happening with the Indigenous peoples in occupied Palestine has been happening in conjunction with the maintenance of colonial Australia. As Social Workers we must protect all indigenous peoples of the world and must not be remembered for our complicity in upholding Israel's apartheid of Palestine and the colonisation of its land, water, and people.  

The aftermath of the current and ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza will have significant and lasting impacts on Palestinian people and Palestinians in the diaspora. The social implications due to destruction of homes, healthcare systems, and hospitals and infrastructures will take years to rebuild. The trauma they have lived through will work its way through generations. As Social Workers we cannot begin to assist these communities without first acknowledging the systems of oppression that surround them, that we refuse to denounce.

We the undersigned urge the Australian Association of Social Workers to uphold its commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization by acting in accordance with this call to action. 

Warm regards, 

Social Workers for Palestine (Australia)