Students Call on UNC School of Social Work to Break Silence on Palestine
Students Call on UNC School of Social Work to Break Silence on Palestine
The Issue
“If I die, remember that I, we, were individuals, humans, we had names, dreams, and achievements and our only fault was that we were classified as inferior.” - Belal Aldabbour, Palestinian neurologist, Gaza City, X/Twitter
Dear Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson and the Senior Administrative Council,
Introduction
In light of the ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Palestine, the Gaza Strip specifically, we, the undersigned School of Social Work students and alumni, are calling on the School of Social Work (SSW) to respond to this emergency issue in no uncertain terms. Israel[1] is committing genocide[2] against Palestinians, made possible only by unprecedented endorsement and resources from the United States. What is happening in Gaza is not a war on Hamas, but a war on Palestinians: as of October 31, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 8,525 Palestinians, including over 3,542 children, have been killed by the Israeli government in three weeks, and over 5,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel (Al Jazeera, 2023a; Al Jazeera, 2023b). How many people will die at the hands of an oppressive regime before the School makes its position clear? As Islamophobic violence has spread to our campus, it is long past time.[3]
Angela Davis, a scholar whose work is frequently referenced in the SSW curriculum, recently said, “Palestine is a moral litmus test for the rest of the world.” (Hill, 2023). The School’s position on this issue is a litmus test for the kind of social workers it is preparing us to be.
This letter will explain why the genocide in Palestine is a social work issue and propose three key action points to bring the SSW into alignment with its mission and the NASW Code of Ethics. To clarify, this letter is not asking you to ignore the suffering of Israelis, and it in no way condones violence against civilians. Rather, we hope this letter sparks necessary conversations and changes how the SSW addresses the Palestinian ethnic cleansing going forward.
Analysis: Genocide in Palestine is a Social Work Issue
History and Systemic Analysis of the Occupation
Israel, like the U.S., is a European settler colonial state that maintains its power through the exploitation and forced displacement of Indigenous communities (Erakat, 2016). Early Zionist leaders believed Palestinians would simply “fold their tents and slip away” or be “spirited across the borders” if they resisted (Masalha, 1992, p.1). The British government expressed its support for the establishment of Israel in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917, named after then Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, a white supremacist, xenophobe, and anti-semite (Munayyer, 2017). This Declaration cannot be disentangled from the vested interest of the U.K. in establishing a European stronghold in the region. These efforts culminated in the Nakba and associated violence from 1947-1949, in which 750,000 Palestinians were displaced in service of the creation of Israel (Al Jazeera, 2017). It is crucial to understand this history as a systematic and ongoing campaign to dehumanize Palestinians in order to control the land.
NASW Code of Ethics
The following principles from the NASW Code of Ethics require social workers to speak out against the genocide in Palestine.
Service: Palestinians have been denied access to basic needs, including water, medical treatment, and shelter. Survivors of this genocide will carry profound trauma that we know will be transmitted epigenetically through generations (DeAngelis, 2023). Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and the diaspora are and will be our clients and community members, and this principle requires us to condemn the conditions that gave rise to this violence.
Social justice: Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine was established and is supported by the U.S. and the U.K., the world’s most prolific colonial powers. The Palestinian genocide is rooted in settler colonialism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia. This principle requires us to develop an analysis of the genocide grounded in these systems of oppression, as well as to resist them through action against the genocide.
Dignity and worth of the person: Genocide is the most extreme violation of a person’s dignity and worth. The genocidal violence against Palestinians we are watching unfold has been made possible by decades of dehumanization, and this principle requires us to resist this dehumanization by all means available to us, including public statements of solidarity.
UNC SSW stated mission
In 2019, the SSW adopted the current mission, which calls on us to “serve vulnerable and marginalized populations in North Carolina and around the world.” Further, the School’s strategic priority of “Advancing a Global Perspective” means the School must prepare us to work in a global context, including developing a critical analysis of the genocide in Palestine. Together, these obligate the SSW to stand unequivocally and publicly against the Palestinian genocide. Finally, SSW students and alumni, local social workers, and the broader University community look to the School for analysis and best practices in responding to unfolding situations such as this. Therefore, it is essential that the SSW provides clarity on its position. The School has previously released statements condemning state-sanctioned violence here and around the world, recommitting itself to social justice. As former Dean Gary Bowman stated, “Change is long overdue. It must happen now. And we, as social workers, must actively engage at all levels. No one gets an excused absence.”
Calls To Action
Make a public statement condemning genocide in Palestine.
We call on the SSW to make a public statement unequivocally condemning the genocide in Palestine and the recent Islamophobic violence on Franklin Street. We call for this statement to provide avenues for student action, as it did regarding the invasion of Ukraine. It is essential that the SSW keeps in mind that Palestinians have endured decades of dispossession, dehumanization and annexation under illegal Israeli occupation. This statement must not endorse a “both sides” argument: it must express grief for all Palestinian and Israeli deaths, and it must condemn the Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians[4]. The School must acknowledge the antisemitism and Islamophobia occurring as a result of this violence, and it must refrain from framing this as a religious conflict. We call on the SSW to name this for what it is: genocidal violence resulting from a settler-colonial project. Finally, as a highly-ranked school of social work, the School must use its influence to call for the NASW to do the same.
Address the genocide in the SSW curriculum.
We call on the SSW to incorporate an analysis of this situation grounded in anti-colonialism into required coursework and materials. History of the occupation and genocide as well as skills to analyze them, including media literacy, should be incorporated into SOWO 501. Clinical skills for approaching the occupation and genocide with impacted clients should be incorporated into SOWO 540 and 740. Discussion of Palestine should be included in policy and research courses focused on a global context. Building skills to address genocidal violence in Palestine and elsewhere should be considered when selecting summer reading and inviting lecturers to the School. Faculty should be empowered and supported to address the occupation and genocide of Palestine in the classroom.
Provide support for all affected students and staff.
We call on the SSW to provide support to all students and staff impacted by the ongoing violence in Palestine. This may include Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and Israeli students and staff, as well as students and staff of color who may deeply resonate with the freedom fight in Palestine (Harrison et al., 2023; Scher, 2022). Many of us are experiencing this grief as both personal, tied to the genocidal suffering of our own communities, and omnipresent, given constant exposure to horrific images as we attempt to remain engaged and educated. We call on the SSW to make accommodations available surrounding this active genocide, including flexibility with student attendance, making space for discussion in the classroom and through assignments, and adjusting deadlines as necessary.
Take the next step towards justice.
Finally, we request a prompt response by Friday, November 10 to set a meeting with Dean Denby-Brinson and relevant members of the Senior Administrative Council by Tuesday, November 14 to discuss implementing these calls for action.
Conclusion
In silence, we have been taught that the violence in Palestine is too complicated to understand. It is not. In silence, we have been taught social workers should ignore genocide so long as it is taking place far away, so long as the people dying are not white, so long as speaking against it risks our comfort. We must not. We refuse to accept silence as a sufficient answer. We call on the School of Social Work to act on its mission, its values, and its promises to its students, and to break its silence about Palestine.
Sincerely,
Liv Linn, 2nd year MSW/MPH student
Catharine Reagan, 2nd year MSW student
Madeline Van Husen, 2nd year MSW/MPH student
Amaya Wallace, 2nd year MSW student
**We would also like to recognize the other students at SSW who contributed to the creation of this letter but would prefer to remain anonymous**
Footnotes
[1] To be abundantly clear, we know that neither “Israel,” the ethnoreligious state, nor “Zionism,” the ideology that justifies the occupation of Palestine, are interchangeable with “Jews”; that many Jews, including students who have signed this letter, are anti-Zionist and condemn Israel’s actions; and that conflating Israel’s ideology and actions with those of all Jews or with the Jewish religion is anti-semitic.
[2] A note on language: we do not use the terms “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” lightly. We use “ethnic cleansing” to refer to the history of displacement and killing of Palestinians beginning with the Nakba in 1948. We use “genocide” to refer to current Israeli violence based on the U.N.’s definition of genocide and the consensus of scholars and activists.
[3] This letter is informed by the work of our colleagues in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
[4] Why condemn Israel and not Hamas? The short answer is that of course we condemn Hamas, and we call on the School to publicly grieve those killed by Hamas. We also recognize that the current siege in Gaza predates the existence of Hamas, whose power in Gaza over the past two decades has been propped up by the Israeli government. Most importantly, we want to emphasize how Palestinians have had to prove their humanity and positions (not supporting murder, not being anti-semitic, not supporting Hamas) again and again before being deemed worthy of safety (Aziza, 2023).
Citations
Al Jazeera. (2023a, October 9). Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live Tracker. Al Jazeera. Date accessed November 1, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
Al Jazeera. (2023b, October 8). Why are so many Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/why-are-so-many-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails
Al Jazeera. (2017, May 23). The Nakba did not start or end in 1948. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
Aziza, S. (2023, October 18). Doomsday Diaries. The Baffler. https://thebaffler.com/latest/doomsday-diaries-aziza
Belal Aldabbour [@Belalmad12]. (2023, October 11). “If I die, remember that I, we, were individuals, humans, we had names, dreams, and achievements and our only fault was that we were classified as inferior.” [Tweet]. Twitter/X. https://x.com/Belalmd12/status/1712044964920664535?s=20
DeAngelis, T. (2023, October 12). War’s enduring legacy: how does trauma haunt future generations? American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/trauma-survivors-generations
Doctors Without Borders. (2023, October 28). MSF: Violence in Gaza escalates despite calls for a ceasefire. Doctors Without Borders. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-violence-gaza-escalates-despite-calls-ceasefire
Erakat, N. (2016, May 18). The Nakba and Anti-Blackness. The Nakba Files. https://nakbafiles.org/2016/05/18/the-nakba-and-anti-blackness/
Harrison, D., Dickerson, E., O, & B. (2023, March 28). From Black Atlanta to Palestine: A statement of connection, solidarity, and survival. Scalawag. https://scalawagmagazine.org/2023/03/black-palestine-atlanta/
Hill, M.L. (2023, October 27). Angela Davis: ‘Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world’. UpFront. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2023/10/27/angela-davis-palestine-is-a-moral-litmus-test-for-the-world
Musalha, N. (1992). Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought. 1882-1948. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Munayyer, Y. (2017, November 1). It’s time to admit that Arthur Balfour was a white supremacist — and an anti-Semite, too. Forward. https://forward.com/opinion/386480/its-time-to-admit-that-arthur-balfour-was-a-white-supremacist-and-an-anti-s/
Scher, I. (2022, April 5). “The Right of Return is Landback”. Jewish Currents. https://jewishcurrents.org/the-right-of-return-is-landback
216
The Issue
“If I die, remember that I, we, were individuals, humans, we had names, dreams, and achievements and our only fault was that we were classified as inferior.” - Belal Aldabbour, Palestinian neurologist, Gaza City, X/Twitter
Dear Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson and the Senior Administrative Council,
Introduction
In light of the ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Palestine, the Gaza Strip specifically, we, the undersigned School of Social Work students and alumni, are calling on the School of Social Work (SSW) to respond to this emergency issue in no uncertain terms. Israel[1] is committing genocide[2] against Palestinians, made possible only by unprecedented endorsement and resources from the United States. What is happening in Gaza is not a war on Hamas, but a war on Palestinians: as of October 31, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 8,525 Palestinians, including over 3,542 children, have been killed by the Israeli government in three weeks, and over 5,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel (Al Jazeera, 2023a; Al Jazeera, 2023b). How many people will die at the hands of an oppressive regime before the School makes its position clear? As Islamophobic violence has spread to our campus, it is long past time.[3]
Angela Davis, a scholar whose work is frequently referenced in the SSW curriculum, recently said, “Palestine is a moral litmus test for the rest of the world.” (Hill, 2023). The School’s position on this issue is a litmus test for the kind of social workers it is preparing us to be.
This letter will explain why the genocide in Palestine is a social work issue and propose three key action points to bring the SSW into alignment with its mission and the NASW Code of Ethics. To clarify, this letter is not asking you to ignore the suffering of Israelis, and it in no way condones violence against civilians. Rather, we hope this letter sparks necessary conversations and changes how the SSW addresses the Palestinian ethnic cleansing going forward.
Analysis: Genocide in Palestine is a Social Work Issue
History and Systemic Analysis of the Occupation
Israel, like the U.S., is a European settler colonial state that maintains its power through the exploitation and forced displacement of Indigenous communities (Erakat, 2016). Early Zionist leaders believed Palestinians would simply “fold their tents and slip away” or be “spirited across the borders” if they resisted (Masalha, 1992, p.1). The British government expressed its support for the establishment of Israel in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917, named after then Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, a white supremacist, xenophobe, and anti-semite (Munayyer, 2017). This Declaration cannot be disentangled from the vested interest of the U.K. in establishing a European stronghold in the region. These efforts culminated in the Nakba and associated violence from 1947-1949, in which 750,000 Palestinians were displaced in service of the creation of Israel (Al Jazeera, 2017). It is crucial to understand this history as a systematic and ongoing campaign to dehumanize Palestinians in order to control the land.
NASW Code of Ethics
The following principles from the NASW Code of Ethics require social workers to speak out against the genocide in Palestine.
Service: Palestinians have been denied access to basic needs, including water, medical treatment, and shelter. Survivors of this genocide will carry profound trauma that we know will be transmitted epigenetically through generations (DeAngelis, 2023). Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and the diaspora are and will be our clients and community members, and this principle requires us to condemn the conditions that gave rise to this violence.
Social justice: Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine was established and is supported by the U.S. and the U.K., the world’s most prolific colonial powers. The Palestinian genocide is rooted in settler colonialism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia. This principle requires us to develop an analysis of the genocide grounded in these systems of oppression, as well as to resist them through action against the genocide.
Dignity and worth of the person: Genocide is the most extreme violation of a person’s dignity and worth. The genocidal violence against Palestinians we are watching unfold has been made possible by decades of dehumanization, and this principle requires us to resist this dehumanization by all means available to us, including public statements of solidarity.
UNC SSW stated mission
In 2019, the SSW adopted the current mission, which calls on us to “serve vulnerable and marginalized populations in North Carolina and around the world.” Further, the School’s strategic priority of “Advancing a Global Perspective” means the School must prepare us to work in a global context, including developing a critical analysis of the genocide in Palestine. Together, these obligate the SSW to stand unequivocally and publicly against the Palestinian genocide. Finally, SSW students and alumni, local social workers, and the broader University community look to the School for analysis and best practices in responding to unfolding situations such as this. Therefore, it is essential that the SSW provides clarity on its position. The School has previously released statements condemning state-sanctioned violence here and around the world, recommitting itself to social justice. As former Dean Gary Bowman stated, “Change is long overdue. It must happen now. And we, as social workers, must actively engage at all levels. No one gets an excused absence.”
Calls To Action
Make a public statement condemning genocide in Palestine.
We call on the SSW to make a public statement unequivocally condemning the genocide in Palestine and the recent Islamophobic violence on Franklin Street. We call for this statement to provide avenues for student action, as it did regarding the invasion of Ukraine. It is essential that the SSW keeps in mind that Palestinians have endured decades of dispossession, dehumanization and annexation under illegal Israeli occupation. This statement must not endorse a “both sides” argument: it must express grief for all Palestinian and Israeli deaths, and it must condemn the Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians[4]. The School must acknowledge the antisemitism and Islamophobia occurring as a result of this violence, and it must refrain from framing this as a religious conflict. We call on the SSW to name this for what it is: genocidal violence resulting from a settler-colonial project. Finally, as a highly-ranked school of social work, the School must use its influence to call for the NASW to do the same.
Address the genocide in the SSW curriculum.
We call on the SSW to incorporate an analysis of this situation grounded in anti-colonialism into required coursework and materials. History of the occupation and genocide as well as skills to analyze them, including media literacy, should be incorporated into SOWO 501. Clinical skills for approaching the occupation and genocide with impacted clients should be incorporated into SOWO 540 and 740. Discussion of Palestine should be included in policy and research courses focused on a global context. Building skills to address genocidal violence in Palestine and elsewhere should be considered when selecting summer reading and inviting lecturers to the School. Faculty should be empowered and supported to address the occupation and genocide of Palestine in the classroom.
Provide support for all affected students and staff.
We call on the SSW to provide support to all students and staff impacted by the ongoing violence in Palestine. This may include Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and Israeli students and staff, as well as students and staff of color who may deeply resonate with the freedom fight in Palestine (Harrison et al., 2023; Scher, 2022). Many of us are experiencing this grief as both personal, tied to the genocidal suffering of our own communities, and omnipresent, given constant exposure to horrific images as we attempt to remain engaged and educated. We call on the SSW to make accommodations available surrounding this active genocide, including flexibility with student attendance, making space for discussion in the classroom and through assignments, and adjusting deadlines as necessary.
Take the next step towards justice.
Finally, we request a prompt response by Friday, November 10 to set a meeting with Dean Denby-Brinson and relevant members of the Senior Administrative Council by Tuesday, November 14 to discuss implementing these calls for action.
Conclusion
In silence, we have been taught that the violence in Palestine is too complicated to understand. It is not. In silence, we have been taught social workers should ignore genocide so long as it is taking place far away, so long as the people dying are not white, so long as speaking against it risks our comfort. We must not. We refuse to accept silence as a sufficient answer. We call on the School of Social Work to act on its mission, its values, and its promises to its students, and to break its silence about Palestine.
Sincerely,
Liv Linn, 2nd year MSW/MPH student
Catharine Reagan, 2nd year MSW student
Madeline Van Husen, 2nd year MSW/MPH student
Amaya Wallace, 2nd year MSW student
**We would also like to recognize the other students at SSW who contributed to the creation of this letter but would prefer to remain anonymous**
Footnotes
[1] To be abundantly clear, we know that neither “Israel,” the ethnoreligious state, nor “Zionism,” the ideology that justifies the occupation of Palestine, are interchangeable with “Jews”; that many Jews, including students who have signed this letter, are anti-Zionist and condemn Israel’s actions; and that conflating Israel’s ideology and actions with those of all Jews or with the Jewish religion is anti-semitic.
[2] A note on language: we do not use the terms “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” lightly. We use “ethnic cleansing” to refer to the history of displacement and killing of Palestinians beginning with the Nakba in 1948. We use “genocide” to refer to current Israeli violence based on the U.N.’s definition of genocide and the consensus of scholars and activists.
[3] This letter is informed by the work of our colleagues in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
[4] Why condemn Israel and not Hamas? The short answer is that of course we condemn Hamas, and we call on the School to publicly grieve those killed by Hamas. We also recognize that the current siege in Gaza predates the existence of Hamas, whose power in Gaza over the past two decades has been propped up by the Israeli government. Most importantly, we want to emphasize how Palestinians have had to prove their humanity and positions (not supporting murder, not being anti-semitic, not supporting Hamas) again and again before being deemed worthy of safety (Aziza, 2023).
Citations
Al Jazeera. (2023a, October 9). Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live Tracker. Al Jazeera. Date accessed November 1, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
Al Jazeera. (2023b, October 8). Why are so many Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/why-are-so-many-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails
Al Jazeera. (2017, May 23). The Nakba did not start or end in 1948. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
Aziza, S. (2023, October 18). Doomsday Diaries. The Baffler. https://thebaffler.com/latest/doomsday-diaries-aziza
Belal Aldabbour [@Belalmad12]. (2023, October 11). “If I die, remember that I, we, were individuals, humans, we had names, dreams, and achievements and our only fault was that we were classified as inferior.” [Tweet]. Twitter/X. https://x.com/Belalmd12/status/1712044964920664535?s=20
DeAngelis, T. (2023, October 12). War’s enduring legacy: how does trauma haunt future generations? American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/trauma-survivors-generations
Doctors Without Borders. (2023, October 28). MSF: Violence in Gaza escalates despite calls for a ceasefire. Doctors Without Borders. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-violence-gaza-escalates-despite-calls-ceasefire
Erakat, N. (2016, May 18). The Nakba and Anti-Blackness. The Nakba Files. https://nakbafiles.org/2016/05/18/the-nakba-and-anti-blackness/
Harrison, D., Dickerson, E., O, & B. (2023, March 28). From Black Atlanta to Palestine: A statement of connection, solidarity, and survival. Scalawag. https://scalawagmagazine.org/2023/03/black-palestine-atlanta/
Hill, M.L. (2023, October 27). Angela Davis: ‘Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world’. UpFront. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2023/10/27/angela-davis-palestine-is-a-moral-litmus-test-for-the-world
Musalha, N. (1992). Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought. 1882-1948. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Munayyer, Y. (2017, November 1). It’s time to admit that Arthur Balfour was a white supremacist — and an anti-Semite, too. Forward. https://forward.com/opinion/386480/its-time-to-admit-that-arthur-balfour-was-a-white-supremacist-and-an-anti-s/
Scher, I. (2022, April 5). “The Right of Return is Landback”. Jewish Currents. https://jewishcurrents.org/the-right-of-return-is-landback
216
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on November 1, 2023