Reimagining Social Work in AotearoaA guest post from Dr David Kenkel
A dictionary definition describes nostalgia as “A wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to, or of, some past period or irrecoverable condition” (Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, 2024). Nostalgia can be vicious; it is often a great deal more than the wistful yearnings for earlier remembered paradises.
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The email below was sent to us by Amal Sadaqa from Stars of Hope a disability services NGO working in the West Bank of Palestine. It reminds us that while we must demand a permanent ceasefire on Gaza, the West Bank too is facing intensified attacks from Israeli Occupation forces.
By Eileen Joy and Meryl Fraser.
Earlier this month members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work Journal issued a plea for Justice for Palestine. Sadly we note that our plea must remain, that Palestine is still under bombardment and the genocide of Palestinians continues apace. In that plea we noted the weak responses of both the International Federation of Social Workers and our own professional association the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW). We also said that we would follow up our plea with a list of actions people could take. We know that many fellow social workers are likely to feel a sense of bewilderment, horror, and confusion about what is happening and these feelings can lead to paralysis. That paralysis is often accompanied by a sense of helplessness. Here in Aotearoa it might seem that there is nothing you can do. Hopefully this list will help you – and others – realise that there is a lot you can do.
But first I want to start with the words of Brittany Packnett who was writing in 2018 about the death of a young Black woman in the United States. These words have been shared anew via Instagram in recent weeks. I share them to frame this conversation:
The most important step is this: Train yourself toward solidarity and not charity. You are no one’s saviour. You are a mutual partner in the pursuit of freedom. Lilla Watson, an Aboriginal activist and artist once said ‘If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ I want to be free. I want you to be free. And you aren’t free until I am.
This means we have to work together. This means that solidarity is a verb. This is about working together, it is about kotahitanga to achieve rangatiratanga, both are values embedded in the ANZASW Code of Ethics – these are values that social workers in Aotearoa should be very familiar with.
Given that what can solidarity look like when we are in Aotearoa – miles away from bombs and genocide? What follows is a non-exhaustive list of things you can do – and I encourage you to add things to this list in the comments section.
More specific actions:
Remember you can make a difference. We can stand together. Millions of people around the world are calling for a ceasefire, for a radical rethink about the occupation of Palestinian land. You can and should join those calls for action. Solidarity is a verb, take action. Do the mahi. Fight back.
This text is a formative advance version of a special editorial from the following members of the ANZSW Journal Editorial Collective: Neil Ballantyne, Liz Beddoe, Kerri Cleaver, Yvonne Crichton-Hill, Ian Hyslop, Eileen Joy, Emily Keddell, Deb Stanfield, and Shayne Walker. It will be further developed, refined and published in the forthcoming Reproductive Justice issue of the journal. It has been written to express unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people at this time.
The letter below has just been mailed by Raed Amira, a Palestinian social worker, to challenge the neutral stance of the IFSW with regard to the genocide of Gazan civilians. Raed is based in Bethlehem and is a representative of the Human Rights Commission for the Asia Pacific Region, a member of the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists, and a member of the Arab Federation of Social Workers. Raed wrote this as the death toll in the 2023 Israel-Gaza war approached 9,000, two-thirds of whom were women and children: these are not just statistics; they are loving family members lost, ambitions broken and dreams destroyed.
At the same time, in his community in Bethlehem in the West Bank, Raed’s colleagues, friends and families are being shot at by settlers and detained and tortured by the Israeli occupation forces.
The Reimaging Social Work collective stands shoulder to shoulder with our Palestinian brothers and sisters and we condemn the IFSW for its neutrality and complicity with Israel’s settler colonial war crimes.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Bishop Desmon Tutu
I fear not execution
Not death from rifle barrels or
The shadows on the gates
I fear not restless nights with
Shooting stars of streaking pain
I fear but blindness from a world
Indifferent and insane.
Halfdan Rasmussam
My colleagues in IFSW,
I hope you are doing well. This will be my last message to you. Today, I will be more frank with you. I will share this message with our colleagues around the world.
First of all, it is not permissible for anyone in this world, especially when he calls for human rights, to equate the victim with the executioner, the oppressor with the oppressed. You are human rights advocates, and you are the ones who taught us that social work is about resistance, that social work is about sacrifice, giving, and freedom.
You are the ones who told us that you are committed to the United Nations and its institutions, the Security Council and its resolutions, human rights, international law, and so on, which all call for the illegality of the occupation and the Palestinian rights to self-determination and resistance.
Today, you are called be the owners of a real cause and to take a clear position, otherwise, there is no need for your words and sermons. The truth is clear to you, and you know it very well. Many of you spoke to me and admitted that these are atrocities and crimes and that the occupation is criminal and brutal. Many of you tell the truth but cannot say it publicly. Who would have expected that in the year 2023, in which the world imagined flying cars, we would instead witness a genocide live on social media and in front of silent mouths?
You and your administration know that members of the Israeli Union of Social Workers participate in the killing of Palestinians because they, like most Israelis, carry a conscription ID, and support the terrorism of their government and their settlers among us. Yet, you still embrace this fascist, racist, and Zionist institution. This was acknowledged by the president of the Israeli Union of Social Workers in Dublin in 2018, where she said frankly and proudly that the members of the Israeli Union participate in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), killing and arresting Palestinians. Including the repeated arrests of Palestinian social workers who were supposed to have received international immunity from you. The whole world knows that Israel kills doctors, paramedics, journalists, and children, yet no one acts to deter them?
Currently, the Arab Union of Social Workers are waiting for our opinion regarding your shameful and neutral statements. There is anger among social workers, not only in Palestine but also in many countries. We are waiting for your response. By the way, there are many social workers in Gaza. I wish we could communicate with them and be reassured they are still alive. But, the policy of collective punishment imposed on Gaza, cut both the electricity supply and the Internet. I do not know anything about my fellow specialists in Gaza. I do know that one of my colleagues was injured and lost her family in the frenzied Israeli bombing.
Nor should we forget the many Palestinian social workers locked up in Israeli prisons, sentenced to administrative detention and held without charge. I keep them in my prayers and supplications. The situation here in the West Bank is deteriorating every day, and one of our colleagues, Riad Arar (a well-known social worker) and his son have just been brutally arrested by the occupation forces.
For the sake of all this, do not be silent. For the sake of all the blood and the pain, do not be silent. Otherwise, I am ashamed to be a member of this union.
Free Palestine!
Best Regards
Raed