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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nIn a Jan. 19 report to member organizations, Pascal Rudin, interim secretary general of IFSW, outlined the proposal, which calls on the federation to \u201ccondemn the genocide in Gaza,\u201d demand a ceasefire and immediately suspend cooperation with Israeli state, professional and academic institutions operating in what it described as \u201cillegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,\u201d including Ariel University.<\/p>\n
The Jewish Social Worker Consortium described the planned vote as \u201ca clear escalation in selective enforcement,\u201d citing what it called \u201ccoordinated pressure by anti-Zionist organizations\u201d to push member groups to endorse the Israeli union\u2019s expulsion.<\/p>\n
The group called on the IFSW to halt the vote and urged the U.S.-based National Association of Social Workers, a member organization with over 120,000 members, \u201cto reject endorsement of expulsion and to affirm that ethical accountability must be conduct-based, not identity-based.\u201d The U.S. association has not commented publicly.<\/p>\n
Member organizations from Switzerland, Germany and the Dominican Republic have submitted their statements in advance of the meeting, recommending dialogue or suspension rather than expulsion.<\/p>\n
\u2018Deeply troubled\u2019<\/p>\n
The motion proposal follows a January 2025 censure of the Israeli union for what the IFSW described as \u201cnot acting to promote peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of that process, IFSW asked whether the Israeli union would request that the Israeli government exempt social workers from active combat roles. The Israeli union confirmed that some of its members serve in combat roles due to the Jewish state\u2019s mandatory military and reserve service laws, and declined to make such a request.<\/p>\n
IFSW stated that the refusal violated its Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles, adopted in 2018, which holds that social workers should support peace and nonviolence and \u201cshould not use weapons in their professional or personal capacities against people.\u201d<\/p>\n
By contrast, IFSW claimed that the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists, listed as having approximately 9,500 members, confirmed that its members were \u201cnot engaged in combat at any level and that they stand for peace and self-determination.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli union said it was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the censure. In a response letter, it argued that while the Palestinian union said its members were not involved in combat, \u201cthere is no Palestinian government in Gaza to approach for any exemption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terrorist organization, Hamas, rules, and there is no standing army under civilian control,\u201d it stated, adding that the Palestinian group \u201chas no way of knowing if members are taking part in the fighting or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli union accused the IFSW of being \u201cone-sided, discriminatory and applying a double standard,\u201d pointing to Austria, Switzerland and Norway, which have similar reserve service policies but whose social worker organizations were not asked to seek combat exemptions.<\/p>\n
The letter also noted that social workers serve within the militaries of countries, including Canada and the United States, without IFSW asking those member groups to request exemptions.<\/p>\n
The singling out of the Israeli union constitutes \u201can antisemitic act\u201d under the definition of Jew-hatred \u201caccepted by most Western governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to be clear, the IUSW has consistently called for a just peace based on a mutual recognition of rights and self-determination of both Israelis and Palestinians,\u201d the letter stated, adding that the Palestinian union has \u201cconsistently rejected our attempts to open any dialogue to promote trust and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli union cited a 2019 offer to co-host a conference with the Palestinian union in Tel Aviv and Bethlehem, which it said the Palestinian union rejected. IFSW \u201csubsequently refused\u201d to allow the Israeli union to proceed with the conference independently.<\/p>\n
The letter concluded with a list of social workers murdered by Hamas during its terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including Sigal Levi, Yisrael Amichai Vitzan, Moshe Yedidya Raziel, Lilach Kipnis and Rinat Segev-Even, who was murdered with her husband and two of her children.<\/p>\n
It also noted Ditsa Heyman, an 84-year-old retired social worker, who was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz and returned to Israel after 53 days during the first hostage-prisoner exchange with Hamas.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Union responded to the censure by expressing its disappointment that it was not a strong enough action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fails to address the full gravity of the situation,\u201d the letter stated. It accused Israel of \u201cpersistent persecution and forced displacement of Palestinians\u201d as well as \u201congoing targeting of Palestinian social workers, including their killing, detention and forced displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Palestinian union urged the IFSW to \u201cmove beyond censures\u201d by recognizing the \u201cgenocide and forced displacement as violations of international law\u201d and supporting Palestinian social workers \u201cin resisting the occupation and its violations.\u201d PJC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Federation of Social Workers, a global umbrella organization representing about 3 million social workers through more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-277776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}