About

A collective of sociologists in Britain calling on sociologists and sociological professional bodies to use their platforms to stand with Palestinians Email at: socispal@proton.me

24th November 2023

Sociologists in Solidarity with Palestinians

We are a collective of sociologists based in Britain who are deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. This statement is our response to the silence from our discipline, British-based professional organisations who represent us, and the reluctance to condemn the Israeli state’s acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

At its heart, sociology is a discipline that is underpinned by and centres a critical analysis of power and social inequality. Yet, there has been silence in some parts of the discipline, and the construction of an equivalence without regard to power in others. Meanwhile, at a time when talk of ‘decolonisation’ is de rigueur in our discipline we question the glaring and exceptional silence on Palestine and the plight of Palestinian people who are living under ongoing settler colonialism, colonial occupation and conditions of apartheid. These are conditions in which Britain itself has long played a role, from the Balfour declaration through to the present day with the British government’s £42 million in arms sales to Israel last year. As anticolonial scholars we name and oppose settler colonialism and the colonial occupation in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. As sociologists working in Britain, we express our anger and dismay at the failure of our government and the opposition Labour Party to, at the very least, call for a ceasefire.

We mourn the loss of all civilians killed in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel in recent weeks. On 7 October 2023,1200 Israeli civilians were killed during the attacks launched by Hamas, while approximately 200 people were taken hostage. On 9 October, the Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, announced a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, referring to Palestinians through the racist and dehumanising term ‘human animals’. The representation of a people as animals is a central precursor and feature of genocides historically, signalling to many what was to come.

Since then, unprecedented violence has been unleashed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza where over 14,000 Palestinians (including at least 5,500 children) have been killed by Israeli forces, and also in the occupied West Bank where over 200 Palestinians have also been killed. The targeting of health care facilities, resources, and supporting infrastructure in Gaza since 9 October—, including the killing of care professionals and the decimation of roads, sewage, water and communication systems— the wilful destruction of vital infrastructures of life support, will have long term repercussions for Palestinians. In the context of this military action and destruction, some Israeli politicians have called for the ‘voluntary resettlement’ of Palestinians outside of Gaza, exacerbating fears that it may lead to ethnic cleansing.

Palestinian human rights organisations, Jewish civil society groups, Holocaust and genocide studies scholars and others, including over 800 scholars of genocide and international law have warned of ‘the existence of a serious risk of genocide being committed in the Gaza Strip’. In addition to which, South Africa, along with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Venezuela, Comoros and Djibouti, have submitted a joint referral of the situation in Palestine to ensure that the International Criminal Court (ICC) pays urgent attention to the grave situation in Palestine, while the Center for Constitutional Rights have filed suit against the US President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense ‘to challenge the U.S. government’s aiding and abetting of genocide’).

These atrocities are not a ‘new’ Nakba. The violence did not begin on 7th October 2023. Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, dispossessed, and criminalised since the Nakba in 1948 when their society was destroyed and 750,000 Palestinians expelled. Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been militarily occupied since 1967 and now live under an Apartheid regime. Palestinians in East Jerusalem have been given ‘permits’ to live in their own city and these permits can and often are revoked if they do not prove continued physical presence in the city, which Israel unilaterally declared its ‘complete and united capital’ in 1980. Palestinians in Gaza have experienced a 18-year blockade, the longest in modern history. The majority of Gaza’s population are refugees from the 1948 Nakba, denied the right to return to their ancestral homes.

We call on all sociologists and especially those professional and representative bodies that represent us professionally, activist and advocacy subgroups and relevant research centres to use their public platforms to stand with the Palestinian people against settler colonialism and military occupation. We urge you to:

Demand that the recently announced ‘truce’ becomes an immediate and permanent ceasefire; that there is an end to Israel’s illegal military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and that all captives – hostages and political prisoners – are released.
Demand that your universities divest from companies supplying the Israeli military complex.
Recognise that the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing did not begin on 7 October 2023 and is the latest iteration of an ongoing Nakba which is 75 years in the making.
Amplify the voices and scholarship of Palestinians in Gaza, not least given the targeted destruction of universities in Gaza and the intimidation and censorship of Palestinian academics and students in Israel, the West Bank and in the diaspora, including here in Britain.
Mainstream and de-exceptionalise teaching on Palestine within your universities’ Sociology curriculums and address Palestine in your decolonising/anticolonial initiatives.