Solidarity Statement With The People of Palestine
UBUNTU Research and Evaluation is a strategic learning organization powered by a collective of unapologetic Black women, femmes, and non-binary people working as transdisciplinary strategists committed to resistance against anti-Blackness and the intellectual and political defense of all Black people through education, facilitation, and evaluation.
We antagonize an anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-Queer, anti-Femme, and anti-Fat world.
As a learning organization that promotes respecting, protecting, and fulfilling human dignity and upholding practices of the beloved community, we see fit to actively educate ourselves and others about settler colonialism and, specifically, Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
We affirm the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people, advocating for an end to settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation globally. We support the right of Palestinians to return to historic Palestine. The establishment of Israel in 1948, supported by Zionist efforts with backing from US (and UK) imperialism, involved military takeover, forced expulsion of 750,000 indigenous Palestinians, destruction of around 530 villages (the Nakba), and the creation of an apartheid regime with ongoing violence and exclusion. The Israeli Zionist regime is supported by US military aid and sociopolitical and socioeconomic backing. The current conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank are seen as a continuation of 75 years of settler colonial violence and ethnic cleansing.
We unequivocally assert that criticizing Zionism, an ethnocentric political ideology guiding Israel, is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. The attempt to equate the two is a diversionary tactic aimed at shielding Zionism from critique. Zionism, viewed as a colonial ideology, is rooted in racism against the Palestinian people and contradicts the historical principles of Jewish justice championed by groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. These groups collaborate in solidarity with powerful Palestinian organizations at the forefront of the struggle for a Free Palestine.
Evaluation as a profession has a role in addressing injustice. As the evaluation profession increases its awareness and wherewithal to be culturally responsive and culturally relevant, evaluators should recognize the global influence of white supremacist thinking and its role in defining human rights and human dignity. While bias is always a question of evaluator efficacy, we should not shy away from respecting, protecting and fulfilling a sense of dignity for all humanity. At this moment, the people of Palestine are asking that we see them as fully dignified citizens of humanity. Our methodologies alone can help amplify the complexity. (Read more: Who Gets to Tell Your Story.)
As Afrofuturist evaluators, we must move in solidarity with the people of Palestine. In embracing our role as Afrofuturist evaluators, it is imperative that we extend our unwavering solidarity to the resilient people of Palestine. As advocates for a future where inclusivity, justice, and understanding prevail, we recognize the importance of standing united with those who face challenges and struggles. In this spirit, we affirm our commitment to amplifying the voices of the Palestinian community, acknowledging their unique experiences, and working collaboratively towards a future that upholds the principles of equality, freedom, and dignity for all. By fostering solidarity, we contribute to a vision of a more just and equitable world, transcending boundaries and fostering connections that transcend time and space.
We have officially signed on to the 2023 Statement by Black for Palestine [1]:
We make this statement as Black people in solidarity with Palestinian people, committed to our collective liberation, in grief and in outrage at the catastrophic violence that the state of Israel is enacting on Gaza. As we write, Israel has killed more than 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza - including 6,000 children. Over 30,000 people are injured.
We are coming together to demand:
an immediate ceasefire
the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid and services, medical teams, supplies, and trauma care
the immediate restoration of water, food, fuel, electricity, and internet
ending the U.S. obstruction of Palestinian protections against genocide under international law
the prevention of forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza outside of Palestine
an end to the siege on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, including U.S. support
We refuse to remain silent or inactive as two million people in Gaza—half of whom are children—are fenced into an open-air prison, facing the bombs and barricades of the Israeli military. We condemn the displacement of over a million Gazans who have nowhere to run as their homes, shelters, evacuation routes, and border crossings are bombed. We cry out as Israel continues to target hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, bakeries, entire neighborhoods and entire families—the lifeblood and foundations of community.
We name the murderous responsibility of the United States government in particular, which is supplying aircraft, weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel as its forces commit these atrocities. After the Israeli Minister of Defense called the Palestinians of Gaza “human animals” on October 9th and announced that they would be denied life necessities—the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense, and President Biden himself went to Tel Aviv to only affirm their support of Israel’s genocidal actions. We are angered that the U.S. was the sole country to veto the UN Security Council resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire.
All life is precious, we reject the targeting of civilians, and we mourn the loss of all civilian life. The Israeli government, its allies, and Western media have tried to isolate, demonize and dehumanize the people of Gaza to provide a false justification for Israel’s unjustifiable mass killing. Our solidarity is in defiance of those efforts and against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which perpetuates a cycle of violence and death.
Israel is an occupying power engaged in countless violations of international law towards its occupied population. Our demands in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and freedom are for more than the basic necessities under war. We stand with the Palestinian people who have been struggling for their land, their homes, their families and their future for a century and who remain steadfast in the face of the ongoing catastrophes and atrocities committed against them. We honor the strength, the resilience, the commitment, the love, the memories, and the songs of our kin in liberation.
We make this commitment in a long tradition of Black people standing with other peoples around the world in our shared struggle against oppression, racism, and colonialism. This includes calling for an end to U.S. aggression in the Vietnam war, standing with anti-colonial struggles around the world, and most recently with the Black uprising of 2014 and building solidarity with Palestinians over our shared terrain of U.S. and Israeli state violence and disregard for our lives.
We call on Black youth, elders, students, artists, workers, people of faith, activists, teachers and politicians to fearlessly mobilize and speak out for Palestinian freedom, to organize our communities and institutions to do the same. Our collective demands are stronger than any attempt to silence or attack us. We will meet those challenges together and united, we will overcome them.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and we will stand here until Palestine is free.
The aforementioned statement is a demonstration of recognizing, respecting and protecting a sense of dignity for the people of Palestine. The concept of dignity in evaluation underscores the importance of not only upholding our own restorative dignity as evaluators but also safeguarding the social dignity of those we engage with as community members or participants. In the context of the Palestinian genocide, our commitment to solidarity manifests across various domains of social dignity, acknowledging that Palestinians have been deprived of access to these fundamental aspects. By recognizing and addressing these systemic gaps, we strive to restore and uphold the dignity of the Palestinian people in every facet of our evaluative processes, emphasizing the need for a just and equitable approach that transcends the limitations imposed on their social dignity.
Evaluation as a practice is utilized across the globe by people with all different types of life experiences, our profession has the unique gift of being able to make collective demands that transcend disciplinary boundaries or political caste. We want all those in relationship to our organization to join our collective manifestation of a more liberated future.
Here are some additional resources to check out:
https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/black-feminist-perspectives-on-palestine-a-reading-list
Black Feminist Writers and Palestine
https://www.vox.com/2023/10/17/23918689/black-palestinian-solidarity-jewish-alliance-israel
[1]https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2023statement.html