Your Anti-Racism Work Must Not Exclude Palestinians by Jon Cornejo
A new report from Charity So White reveals that the charity sector’s silence on the genocide in Gaza is rooted in anti-Palestinian racism. So, what is the link between anti-racism and Palestine solidarity? And what should charities be doing now?
Charity So White released a major report dissecting the charity sector’s response (or lack thereof) to the violence and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. They surveyed 150 people working across the charity sector to understand how their organisations have responded to the situation in Gaza and how they feel about that response. The results reveal charity staff are largely unhappy with their organisation’s relative silence on Gaza, staff affected by the situation receiving little support from their managers, and internal campaigning for charities to say something about the death and destruction in Gaza.
But dear reader, we exist in a world where charities do their most to tell the world about their commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion! Some are even so visionary that they add an extra J for Justice to their acronym, so we all know they really mean it when they say they have changed! More and more charities are ‘trying’ to do anti-racism work and are throwing out statements and plans to show that they are an anti-racist organisation! How, then, can it be that those same organisations are now being accused of harbouring racist biases against Palestinians?
The silence on Palestine is an excellent example of how charities talk a lot about anti-racism, but stop short when it comes to actually challenging their own racist biases and taking anti-racist action. So, let's dive into the results of Charity So White’s survey of the sector and see what we can learn about anti-Palestinian racism and the sector’s performative approach to anti-racism.
“Charities across the world and in the UK have largely been totally inadequate and have shown what Arabs like myself already knew... that our lives don’t matter at all. Our humanity doesn’t matter. We can be killed in front of your eyes in daylight over and over again, and you don’t care.”
Silence on Palestine shows how charities are afraid to rock the boat
What is really striking from Charity So White’s report is just how much fear there is in the sector to speak up when it comes to Palestine. Judging by the responses and the quotes from staff in the charity sector, leaders and boards too afraid of saying the wrong thing and being criticised are choosing to ignore the genocide in Gaza. It doesn’t matter how many thousands of people are being killed or how much we talk about the direct links between what the charity does and what is happening to the people of Gaza - charity leaders continue to hide behind fears of controversy and choose silence.
“One of our values is to stand up for what is right, and we talk consistently about standing alongside young people about things they think are important. Young people have told us the situation in Gaza is important to them, yet we have not spoken out about it.”
When I hold conversations about anti-racism in charities, one of the very first lessons is that to do the work of dismantling systems of racial oppression means speaking openly against oppression and systemic oppression - especially when doing so would be seen as unpopular or go against mainstream views! So, in this way, we can see Palestine as a litmus test for any organisation that sees itself as having anti-racist values. Under apartheid, Palestinians have their movements controlled and restricted, live under different systems of justice that heavily restrict their rights, and where the threat of state violence is a real and constant danger. So, suppose you, as an individual or as an organisation that espouses anti-racist values, cannot speak out against such clear cases of systemic oppression based on racial differences. In that case, you have much more work to do to decolonise your mind.
Anti-Racism has become a buzzword that charities use but don't understand
It feels like so much time has passed since black square summer when social media was awash with people and organisations declaring their commitment to anti-racism, but really what has actually changed in all that time? Whilst many organisations have talked and talked about equity, diversity, and inclusion work we have continued to see how racial bias continues to play a role within the charity sector. There may be more Black and Brown faces but how many of them are in positions of power? How many of them hold a vision for a liberated future? And how many of them are supported to enact that? This inevitably means that charities continue to uphold racial bias and maintain the systems and narratives of white supremacy.
“Although the organisation is broadly pro-Palestinian rights, there has been a bit of a witch hunt by management to work out who in the staff team has been responsible for organising staff to take action.”
We can see clearly how this plays out within the discourse of Gaza and Palestine within the charity sector. The voices that are calling for charities to speak out against the genocide in Gaza are largely Black and Brown people, whereas the leaders who are declaring the situation as too controversial or irrelevant to comment on are largely those of white leaders.
As somebody that spends a lot of time leading conversations on racism with charities, it is not at all surprising to see that where staff are busy campaigning for action on Palestine and Gaza charity leaders are dragging their feet and rejecting their calls for action. Too often we see radical and visionary work and calls from charity staff being rejected or heavily watered down by our fearful and conservative charity leaders. It seems that many charities are not willing to do the very real work of dismantling systems of oppression, but instead want to wait for this position to be mainstream and commonly accepted before jumping in and taking credit.
Charities are not a safe space to challenge dominant narratives on racism and Palestine
It is heartbreaking to see reports that Black and Brown people in the charity sector do not feel safe to talk about Gaza within their organisations. From tone policing to managers taking action against staff for showing solidarity with Palestine, it seems that leaders are more interested in repressing pro-Palestine views than they do supporting staff dealing with the sorrow and grief of seeing racialised violence and harm at such a massive scale.
Doing anti-racism work is fundamentally about being able to have difficult conversations within an open and supportive environment. But too often, we see this being misconstrued as being about creating comfort for white people whilst silencing the voices of Black and Brown people who are challenging unjust racial power dynamics. So, once again, politeness politics in the charity sector is more critical than having conversations that challenge and oppose existing power dynamics. As if speaking out against white supremacy is a personal attack against white people in leadership.
We can’t say that we want diversity in our organisation or anti-racist approaches whilst rejecting any voices that support Palestine and oppose the violence in Gaza. So charity leaders must learn to understand their anti-Palestinian bias and be open to speaking up on Palestine and Gaza even if it is seen as controversial by influential anti-Palestinian voices. And if you are a funder, think about how anti-Palestinian bias and other forms of racial biases are pushed onto the charities that you fund.
Solidarity with Palestine and Anti-Racism Work
So, what does Palestine have to do with anti-racism? If you are asking yourself this question, then you still have much to learn about how colonialism and imperialism continue to play out in the modern day. We often are taught to look at colonialism as a thing of the past, but in Palestine, you can see how colonialism is very much still a force that impacts the world around us.
Settler colonialism is at the heart of the death and violence that we are witnessing in the Gaza Strip. Where a population of settlers is seeking to destroy and displace an indigenous population to further secure their hold over the land of Palestine. The United States of America is another example of how settler colonialism displaces indigenous people and uses settlements and violence to retain control of the land and resources. Across Latin America (often referred to as Abya Yala by indigenous rights activists), we see how the settler colonialism of the Spanish empire has led to entrenched systemic oppression where indigenous communities are still marginalised and oppressed to this day. Across Africa, we see how the wealth and resource extraction of modern-day globalised capitalism creates societies where local people live in extreme poverty and do arduous work whilst the privileged owner class of billionaires continue to get even more wealthy. All you need to do is take your iPhone out of your pocket to be face-to-face with the brutal extractivism happening in places like Congo through the mining of cobalt. Meanwhile the work of charity and humanitarian aid responds to some of the immediate needs of the people without tackling any of the systemic injustices that maintain local people in poverty.
So, if you genuinely want to do the work of anti-racism, then you need to stand in opposition to settler colonialism and work to redress the harms that it has caused all over the world. Importantly, this includes speaking out against the system of apartheid that Palestinians live under and against the violence used by Israel and its allies, including the UK, against Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank. It means using your power and influence to uplift the voices of Palestinians and advocate for an end to the genocide we have seen unfold for months, an end to apartheid, and an end to imperialism. This will mean that your organisation will be criticised and attacked by the voices of those that gain from colonialism, but you must rise up to it and stand on the right side of history.
What can organisations do?
The most important thing that any charity leader can do in response to Charity So White’s report or to this piece is to put out a statement calling for an end to the genocide and apartheid, and to advocate that the UK government stops selling arms to Israel. This is no time for silence, charities need to do something. Anything. Stand with the people of Gaza.
It strikes me how 38% of respondents said that their charity saw the issue of Gaza as having no relevance to them. It is really sad that so many charities are so closed off that they do not see how such wide scale death and suffering has no relevance to them. The scale of destruction and the scale of injustice in Gaza and Palestine is too large for this argument to hold any real weight. Find your angle, find your niche, and speak up on Palestine! Whether it is to talk about the impact on mental health, the collapse of healthcare and direct attacks on health workers, the mass disabling of children and people in Gaza, the evacuation notices leaving many elderly and disabled people unable to get to safety, the violence against women and girls, the impacts on diaspora communities in the UK, the list goes on and on.
Think about the work that your charity does, then think about how that group of people has been affected in Gaza and advocate on their behalf. This is a time for shared humanity, and the people of Gaza need as many of us as possible to continue to speak loudly about how this genocide is affecting them.
So, as an anti-racism activist and facilitator, here is what you should be doing right now on Gaza and Palestine:
Publicly call for a ceasefire
Advocate for UK govt to stop selling arms to Israel
Call for humanitarian aid and assistance for the people of Gaza
Talk about Gaza in your team, dept, and organisation wide meetings
Support staff affected by the situation in Gaza with mental health support
Have open meetings to talk about why the organisation has not responded to Gaza so far and how staff are feeling about that
Challenge anti-Palestinian narratives and arguments in your board, in your leadership, in your supporters, in the media, and in the general public
Amplify the voices of Palestinians where you are able to
Think about why you personally or you as an organisation have been silent or hesitant to speak on Palestine
Adopt a genuine anti-racist and anti-imperialist approach to you work
I want to end this piece with a quote from Kris Archie, a Secwepemc woman who does community facilitation work in what is now Canada and is also the Executive Director of the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples, on the things that you may be feeling right now.
“When you hear the words decolonization, white supremacy, patriarchy or even racism, do you feel something? Do you get a chill down your back, randomly start crossing your arms, get tense all over your body, or even just feel an urge to resist? Well good! When your body is cold it shivers, when it’s hungry it growls, when it’s in fear it shakes and when it’s sad it cries. Your body is meant to respond, whether that be physical or emotional, and it’s the same when deconstructing what you’ve been taught. It tells you that something is there and that you must go through it and find ways to process it. ”
So, take the time you need to process these feelings and take care of yourself. Take a walk, drink some water, and do whatever you need to recharge. But come back to these topics and these conversations with more motivation to stand with the people of Gaza and do the work of opposing systemic racialised oppression.