End your complicity, uphold your values

For the past 7 months, the state of Israel has brought death and unimaginable destruction upon the civilian population of Gaza in a stark escalation of 75 years of colonial violence. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, 14,500 of them children and 9,560 women. More than 79,000 people have been injured. 1.7 million people have been forcibly displaced, many of them multiple times. Famine is imminent - half of Gaza’s population is facing food insecurity due to the intense bombardment of the Gaza strip and the severe limitations being placed on humanitarian access by Israel. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February,1 in 6 children under the age of 2 was acutely malnourished. An interim damage assessment by the World Bank, EU, and the UN, has estimated the total cost of damages in the Gaza strip at 18.5 billion US dollars and has found that 60% of homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. The WHO conducted a preliminary assessment of the extent of destruction wrought on Al-Shifa hospital during an Israeli siege on the facility. The WHO have described the hospital as “an empty shell” - most of the buildings are destroyed, the medical equipment is unusable and no patients remain. Israel’s latest bombardments over the last 7 months have further intensified the occupational deprivation and injustice experienced by Palestinians by denying them access to the safety and opportunity to engage in even the most basic of essential occupations.

Despite ongoing advocacy by Occupational Therapists worldwide, (Arab Occupational Regional Group, Occupational Therapists and Scientists against Occupation, Palestinian Justice is Occupational Justice) the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) have remained silent on these violations of human rights and international law, and have failed to call for a ceasefire. WFOT issued a tweet on November 6th 2023, stating that their “fundamental beliefs mean that [they] are unable to take positions on political agendas of any nation” (WFOT 2023). This stance is inconsistent with the federation’s own commitment that “WFOT, its Member Organisations, occupational therapists, assistants, and students are obligated to support occupational justice and human rights. WFOT affirms its commitment to challenge and address systemic racism and continue to advocate for people, communities, and societies.” 

The inadequacy of WFOT’s stance on Gaza however goes beyond its failure to call for a ceasefire, and extends to its stance on the fraught international status of the Occupational Therapy degree program currently being taught in Ariel University, in the settlement of Ariel in the Occupied West Bank.

The consensus of the international community is that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. This view has been upheld in the International Court of Justice and by repeated resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Ariel University therefore must be regarded as having been illegally constructed on stolen Palestinian land. The university is currently subject to an academic boycott by the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Despite this international legal consensus, the World Federation only last year took the decision to accredit the degree programme at Ariel University. WFOT has incorrectly listed this programme on its website as located in “Israel”, a designation that further normalises illegal settlement. This is unacceptable from a professional organisation that ostensibly takes an anti-racist, human rights based approach. 

As Occupational Therapists, we have an ethical duty to fight for occupational justice for all people and to do what we can to ensure that all people have equal access and opportunity to engage in occupations of necessity, obligation, and choice.